[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Feeling cold from the wind, Delano snuggled up against Lina's side, trying to get as warm as possible. Of course, she was most likely getting the better deal out of them, with him blocking the wind for her an all. "On the other paw," he muttered, "they can come soon. I wouldn't mind that." Shivering, he lay as low to the ground as possible.

---

Umeme shrugged her shoulders as they walked. "We'll see when they show us. For all we know, they might even be farther away." They walked in silence for the rest of the way, and when they got to their den, sure enough, there were Delano and Lina.

"Hey you two! How's it going? Did you find a den?" Umeme rushed forwards excitedly, eager to hear the news.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina's ears flattened against her head. Delano obviously wasn't benefiting as much from her body warmth as she was from his. After all, being a male, he was a little bigger than she was. "We could go inside until they get here..." she suggested, knowing that Umeme and Muroki wouldn't mind. She stood up and was about to have him follow her into the den of her sister and brother in law, where it wasn't as cold, but that was when her Umeme's voice reached her ears.

Immediatdly becoming excited upon seeing Umeme and her mate, Lina rushed over to her sister with a huge smile on her face. "Yes! We found a den!" she exclaimed, her expression full of joy. "Wait until you see it!" Already unable to wait to see how they would react to the den she and Delano had chosen, she ran past her sister and Muroki.

Muroki had a small grin on his face the entire time. He was already used to Lina becoming so excited like that, but her enthusiasm always seemed to make him smile. As his sister in law took off with Umeme struggling to keep up, Muroki walked over to his brother. "I take it you've had a successful day." he said with a chuckle. Not only was he not in the mood to run really fast, but why overwork himself so much if his brother could show him the way just as well as Lina could but at the normal pace of walking? "Care to show your new home to your brother?"

[DGFone]

Delano slowly got up to his feet, groaning from the effort. "Sure, I'll show you," he told Muroki, "I really don't feel like chasing after Lina yet again today..." He let out a long yawn, glad in many ways to see that Muroki also appeared to have difficulties with running. It meant that he wasn't for some reason the only one of them who really lost his strength over the course of recovering.

Letting Lina and Umeme run off ahead of them, Delano began to walk at his own pace with Muroki. If Lina will want to get there with them, she can wait then.

---

Umeme ran after her sister, delighted to know that the pair has found their home so quickly. "How long did it take you two to find it? And how far away is it?" It would be great news to know that Delano's and Lina's den was very close, but they didn't get there yet.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki couldn't help but chuckle as Delano got to his paws slowly and with a lot of effort. It appeared that his brother had also gotten to run about with his mate, but from the looks of it Delano had put a much bigger effort into it than Muroki had. The credit for that was probably due to Lina from the way his brother was complaining. "So do you like your new den?" Muroki asked as the two of them began walking at their own pace. He grinned, "I can already tell that Lina loves it..."

~~~

Lina kept leading the way, getting more and more excited to show Umeme the den she and Delano had chosen with every passing second. "We searched throughout the course of the morning." she said. "It's not that close to yours, but it's not very far either! As a matter of fact, here it is!" The thrilled lioness came to a stop by the entrance, looking at her sister with a smile. "Come on! Take a look!" Giggling, she walked inside.

[DGFone]

Delano laughed. "Yeah, she loves it. In fact, it was Lina who found it. The way she was begging me to let us live there... 'Delano, pleeeease?' How could I have refused after that." He chuckled. "Although I should have refused her offer to run after her, even if it was mostly my idea..." He looked over his brother, who had an easier time walking. "I take it Umeme did not run you around until your legs dropped? Where did the two of you go?"

---

Umeme followed Lina inside the den. At first, she did not know why Lina was so excited about it: even the entrance was quite small. "So what's so special about this place, Lina? I don't- oh." Her eyes fell onto the entrance to the smaller inner den. Umeme grinned. "Okay, now I can see why you like it." She was hardly able to understand how Lina found this place, because it was quite the wonderful little den. "How did you find it?" she asked.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki also laughed when his brother quouted Lina. "Well as long as you like the den as well, I can't think of a reason for you to have refused." he said, smiling at Delano. "As a matter of fact, we did run. But not as fast as the two of you must have." Chuckling, he seemed to hesitate for a moment before deciding there was no reason to not tell his brother. After all Delano had helped Hatari out during the trial. "We went to see Hatari..." said the pale furred lion after a short silence. "It's been a while and we both wanted to see how he's been."

~~~

As she had her sister take a look around the den, Lina was barely able to stand still because of her excitement. When Umeme finally noticed the thing that made it so special, Lina giggled. "It's just perfect!" she said with a smile. "Well... We were looking around for a den and we just found it." It had been quite a coincidence, now that she was thinking about it. "We got really lucky with it, but I don't care! I love it so much!"

[DGFone]

Delano looked away from Muroki. "Oh, him... how did it go?" Even after the trial, he has yet to really come to terms with how he feels about Hatari... he wasn't even sure what drove him to defend the lion. Was it the dream? It certainly had a lot to do with it, but was it all of it? Now, he wasn't sure if he fully approved of Muroki and Umeme visiting Hatari. But then again, Hatari killed Muroki's parents as well, so in many ways, Muroki had all right to visit the exiled lion if he so wished.

Delano stopped outside his new home. The excited voices of Lina and Umeme could be heard inside. "Well, here we are. This is our new home."

---

Umeme grinned and stuck her tongue out at Lina. "That's what we get for telling you two where to look... we find a really nice den, and you get the really nice den. Care to trade?" She was only teasing, and at that moment, Delano and Muroki walked in. Delano moved over to a far end of the den and flopped on the ground, very much eager to get a long period of rest.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki was a little discouraged when Delano looked away from him at the mention of Hatari. "It was alright..." However, in many ways, his brother's reaction could have been worse. "He seems well and he was really glad to see I'm alright..." He considered asking Delano wherher he would like to maybe join him next time but decided against it. Instead, he let the subject drop as the two of them entered Delano's new den.

As Delano flopped down on one side of the den and Lina made her way over to him, Muroki walked towards Umeme with a smile. "I see they've found a very nice den." he commented, giving his mate a quick nuzzle. She seemed to be particularly interested in the small inner den and, honestly, so was he. It was definitely a great addition. "This part was definitely dug out by someone else."

Lina, happy that Delano had finally arrived, walked.over to him and affectionately rubbed her head on his. "Welcome home, dear." she said, giggling and lying down close to him. "It's gong to be great living here, with you..." She rested her head on his shoulder, purringin content. "Listen, I was wondering... Have you thought about, er..." Lina stopped there and shook her head. "Nevermind." There was no point in mentioning a subject her mate would most likely try to avoid.

[DGFone]

Delano was already feeling himself begin to doze off. "Yeah, it's going to be great," he half mumbled, "especially after the run you made me go through, how about some sleep?"

He almost missed her question, but when Lina did not finish asking him whatever she wanted to ask, he lifted his head to look at her. "You were wondering what, Lina?" he asked, curious. What was something that she was too nervous to ask him about? Or was it because she was afraid of his reaction? Either way, he didn't know the reason, and won't know until she will ask.

---

Umeme wondered about their own den. "You know, we can always dig something like this out ourselves as well," she told him, "if you don't mind getting your paws dirty, we'll also be able to have a small den-in-a-den of our own."

Noticing that Lina and Delano were already off to the side on their own, she figured that it wouldn't be a bad idea to go back to their own home. "Alright, good night Delano and Lina," she told them, "Muroki, let's go home?"

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki smiled as Umeme mentioned the possibility of digging out a small den inside their own den as well, having already considered it himself. It would definitely be a nice addition to the den he already liked, plus Umeme seemed to really like the idea. Why not make her happier about their home if he could? After bidding his brother and sister in law a good night, he left the den with his mate so that they could head back to their own home.

"Have you ever done anything like that before?" Muroki asked at some point, sounding naturally curious. He doubted she'd dug out dens, but she probably did know more about the process than he did. "How long can something like this take?" It's not like they were in a rush or anything, but he still wanted to know. Carrying this out was definitely going to require some hard work, but he wanted another small, seperate area inside their den just like Umeme did.

~~~

Lina remained silent for a few moments, immediately regretting having roused Delano's suspicion. At first she thought that, maybe, he'd failed to notice what she was saying because of how sleepy he was, but that soon turned out to not be the case. "I..." she started, still hesitating. She hasn't had a problem bringing this up in the past before, so why was she now? "I know that, last time I asked, you told me you weren't ready, but... Um... Now that we're in our new home and that you're feeling better, I was wondering whether you've happened to think about, well... starting a family together..."