[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Delano groaned from the pain he was feeling. He couldn't remember if he hurt more the first time he woke up, or now, but just about everything in him was in pain. Despite that, in reply to Muroki's question, he still replied, albeit shakily, "Yeah, I think so..." He desperately wished that the queen would have been able to do something to help with the pain, but she had said that it was too risky to do so now. "I think I'm fine," he said hesitantly, "but," he winced again, "pain..." He clutched onto Lina's foreleg, for at least she was able to offer a little bit of comfort. Spotting the queen nearby, he tried once more. "Are you sure you can't help with the pain?" he begged, but she only nodded grimly.

Then Delano remembered his own worries about his brother. "Muroki... what about you? Are you okay?" Unlike the others, he did not know about how Muroki had stopped breathing, but seeing Muroki here told him that his brother was well enough to have somehow gotten here instead of remaining wherever he was placed initially.

[TheWhistlerify]

As much as the queen wanted to ease Delano's pain as soon as possible, she knew it was too risky. She'd rather have him be in a discomfort for the time being rather than risk making things worse. "I'll make another close examination of your chest in a few hours." She said apologetically. "Maybe then..."

Muroki meanwhile became confused as to why he was barely feeling any pain in his shoulder. The area felt more numb than in pain. Perhaps it was because of the blood lost? Deciding not to complain, he smiled at his brother. "I'm okay now." he said, chuckling as he noticed Kato had fallen asleep next to him and was purring in content. "When I woke up the queen said I'll be alright." It would probably be better to not tell Delano of the breathing incident now that it was behind them. Muroki knew how lucky he was to still be alive, which only helped him keep his cheerful composure.

[DGFone]

Delano nodded, very grateful to know that his brother would be fine. "I was so worried about you," he admitted, "I... I was very scared. I thought... that I had lost you." He saw Lina and Umeme glance at each other nervously, but was too tired to figure out why they did so.

Trying to ignore the pain that would simply not go away, Delano crawled over to Muroki, with Lina helping him to do so. It took all of his strength to do so, but he got himself just high enough off the ground so that he was able to hug Muroki. "Please don't lave me," he whispered, "I don't know what I would do if you did..." He felt Muroki embrace him back, and smiled a little at the contact. His brother was indeed alright, and he wasn't just imagining things.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki smiled reassuringly at his brother. "Don't worry. It's not that easy to get rid of me." he said with a chuckle, feeling more like his old self as he nudged his brother's shoulder with his nose. He happily embraced his brother after Lina had helped him crawl his way over, glad to know that both he and Delano were okay. Hopefully now they would be able to really move and and live normal lives. He knew how much Delano and Lina needed that. "I'm not going anywhere..."

Not wanting to interrupt her nephews, Laini quietly asked Umeme to come aside with her for a moment before telling her of her idea to have her and Muroki stay with them and the others until he got better. "It'll be only temporary..." she explained. "You'll both be safer with us and you won't have to look after Muroki on your own... If you want, then the den we share with your parents is yours. I'm pretty sure they won't mind." She smiled at the younger lioness.

[DGFone]

Delano nodded at Muroi's comments, glad to hear his brother's sense of humor again. With his worries about Muroki gone, Delano felt extremely fatigued once more, most likely a lot of it having to do with the constant pain he was in. "Muroki... will you wake me up if something will come up?" Before even waiting for Muroki's reply, he had already closed his eyes and was ready to go back to sleep and hopefully get some more rest.

Umeme listened to what Laini was telling her. If anything, staying together was something that had already crossed her mind several times. "No, I don't mind," she finally told Kasi's mother. "And I don't think Muroki will mind either. In fact, I think both of them would prefer to be close to each other for now, I mean, look at them-" she motioned at Delano and Muroki. Delano looked like he was ready to fall asleep again, while Muroki looked quite glad just to see his brother alive and relatively well.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki smiled and nodded at his brother's question even though Delano couldn't see him with his eyes closed. "Of course I will, don't worry." he said with a chuckle. "Assuming I don't fall asleep as well, that is." He was tired, but even though his fear of falling asleep and not waking up was gone already he still felt like staying up some more. As he watched his brother drift into sleep he hoped that Delano would be able to finally get the rest he so desperately needed.

Laini smiled as Umeme accepted her offer, which was for her and Muroki's own good at the end of the day, chuckling as she looked at her two nephews. "I don't think I've seen them huddled together like that since they were cubs." she said. "They were just the cutest boys, despite being quite the pair of trouble makers." It seemed like another good aspect of having everyone stick together for the time being was that it would allow the two brothers to see each other more often.

[DGFone]

Umeme looked at Lainin curiosly. Neither Delano nor Muroki really liked to talk about their past much. Sure, they sometimes joked about it, but they never had any serious talks about their lives before they came to the kingdom. So when Lainin mentioned how they reminded her of when they were younger, Umeme instantly grew interested.

"Really? How often did you get to see them when they were cubs? Did you come to them, or did they come to you?" Muroki did often mention that they were quite troublesome when he and Delano were young, but surely they were not entirely all bad. No worse than any other cubs... Umeme hoped that Laini would be more open about their pass than Muroki and Delano were.

[TheWhistlerify]

Laini smiled as Umeme asked about when Delano and Muroki were cubs. She always enjoyed talking about a happy time like that. "We always went to them." She said. "After all you were Kasi's friends at the time, and you would have met his cousins had it been the other way around." She giggled at the memory. "They were good kids, but obviously very playful like all cubs are."

"Muroki used to give me his big round eyes whenever I caught him doing something he wasn't allowed to." She doubted he's ever done that with Umeme. After all he wasn't a cub anymore. "You just couldn't stay mad at him. I'm sure you'll know what I mean soon enough." She wasn't trying to tease Umeme and was honestly wishing them a happy future together. "I'm sure your family will be just as happy."

((We have some lesson thingy now. If I don't come online again within 60 mins then you should go. Unless you plan on going soon anyways, that is. I don't think I'll be too long, though. ))

[DGFone]

While Muroki had never gave Umeme and big eyes, she didn't find it hard to imagine him doing so. However, as the teasing started, she found herself blushing so hard that she had to look down to try and hide it. At least this time, the teasing wasn't as bad. However, Laini did have a point. "Yeah, I think we'll find out fairly soon what that will be like." Umeme said after a while. "But not before Muroki gets better."

Another thought crossed Umeme's mind, and she hoped that it wasn't crossing some line that Laini wouldn't talk about it. "Muroki's parents... what were they like? Lina and I never got to meet them, but it would still be nice to know.."

Spoiler: show

I planned to go to bed now anyways, so see you soon! (I will try to post in the morning when I wake up)

[TheWhistlerify]

Laini said nothing as Umeme looked down in embarrassment. Since she hadn't intended to sound teasing, she figured it would be best to wait for Umeme to speak again in order to make the younger lioness feel less nervous. "When it is not unplanned and when both sides want it, parenthood can easily be the most wonderful experience you'll go through, starting from even before you technically become parents." she said with a smile, remembering what it was like when she and Dakari had decided to have Kasi.

"You and my nephew are very close," Laini continued, "and I can tell you love each other very much. As much as I wish some of the previous... events, hadn't taken place, at least your bond seemed to have grown stronger as a result of them." She smiled. "I think you two will be perfectly alright. If anywhere along the way you feel like you need some advice or just want to talk to someone who's been through this before, feel free to talk to me. If you're too embarrassed to ask your mother, that is." She said the last part with a wink to let Umeme know that she was only kidding.

"My sister and brother in law were... a little different." she said after a short silence. "They were like any other lion and lioness pair out there, but they always seemed to be looking for something else... When they first left the pride I was a little worried at first, but I was happy for them when living more peaceful lives on their own turned out to be what they were looking for. And they didn't live that far away from us, so all was well."

"I'm sure you and Lina would have gotten along swimmingly with both of them." She concluded after another short silence. "I think my sister in particular would have found quite a delight in two daughters in law like your sister and yourself. You know," she chuckled, "she was always a little worried about when Muroki would start looking for a mate because of how shy he still is with strangers... She'd have loved you from the moment you and her son started seeing each other."

Spoiler: show

See ya!
I've been given this dumb punishment and have to wake up at 2 AM, so if you find time to reply to the post I'll make to the post you'll make when you wake up I'll post again. :3