[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Umeme returned Muroki's nuzzle. "I'll be alright, you don't need to worry about me constantly," she reassured him, "although I am still hungry, if you get what I am saying." As much as she liked Muroki being here, she knew that hunger would cause her to start losing control of her emotions, and it only took Muroki once to be near her when that happened for him to know that it was not a good idea. "Go on then. We'll be together when you come back."

---

When Lina didn't want to get up, Delano decided to take things to his own paws. Getting up, he looked down and she still lay where he left her, trying to get some more sleep in. Reaching out, he quickly rolled her over on her back and pinned her, causing her eyes to fly open. Delano smiled at her as he leaned his head down and kissed her. "Are you awake now?"

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki smiled when Umeme returned his nuzzle. Even though he'd thought it impossible, he actually felt like they were becoming closer with every passing day. As she reminded him that she was hungry, however, he nodded. After all, he wouldn't want to keep her hungry for long (mood swings aside - he knew that she needed her food way more than he did). "Will you be fine on your own?" Usually when he went hunting Umeme would stay with either her sister, her parents or Delano, but it was still a little early and nobody was around.

~~~

Lina couldn't stop herself from giggling when Delano kissed her. She wrapped her paws around his neck, briefly holding him there as she rerurned the gesture. "Yes, I'm awake now." she said with a small blush because of the position they were in, letting him go. "So why did you wake me up in such a... rude manner, if I may ask?" Lina giggled once more. She definitely loved that more playful side her mate had.

[DGFone]

Umeme nodded. "I'll wait in the den, so I'll be fine. If you won't take too long, I won't even be bored for too long if you don't take too long." She gave Muroki a quick hug before letting him free. "Alright, go on then. I'll be right here, or perhaps in the den." She gave her mate a quick lick before nudging him lightly along.

---

Delano grinned at Lina. "I don't know, I guess I simply felt like it." He rubbed noses with Lina before getting of her and walking outside. "Come on!" He figured that Lina would like to visit Umeme, now that her sister was carrying cubs. Letting Lina join him outside their den, Delano turned to her. "I was thinking that it might be a good idea to see how Muroki and Umeme are doing. Things are supposed to get quite interesting soon, or are they not?"

[TheWhistlerify]

As much as Muroki would rather stay by Umeme's side all day long, he knew it was his duty to look after her. That included hunting, obviously. While he was okay with getting help every once in a while in his hunts, he never agreed to have anybody hunt instead of him and he wasn't going to. "Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can. I promise..." Giving his mate a lick across her forehead, he ever so reluctantly left her side before making his way towards the nearest hunting grounds.

~~~

Lina joined Delano outside, smiling as he turned to face her and suggested that they went to visit Muroki and Umeme. "Sure, let's go and say hi." Ever since her sister had become pregnant she visited her on a daily basis to see how she and her brother in law were doing. The soon to be mother was starting to show symptoms of advanced pregnancy while her mate was definitely starting to feel the strain of having to look after her. But Muroki never complained, which was something Lina couldn't help but admire. She always knew he'd be a good and loving mate for Umeme. "Yeah, things will get interesting for them soon enough..."

She smiled as the two of them began making their way, knowing that at least Umeme would almost certainly be there. "It's kind of fascinating, you know?" she asked as they walked, staring out into the horizon. "To know that there's a living cub growing up inside her... Maybe even two. Or three!" She chuckled as she remembered once meeting a lioness who had 3 identical boys. Were they a handful alright... "I think it's amazing..."

[DGFone]

Umeme watched Muroki walk off for a short while before walking back into the den. She knew that he would be back soon, and couldn't wait until he would come back.

---

Delano couldn't help but grin at Lina's enthusiasm. "I guess we'll only know when they will come out how many there are," As they walked, he wondered if Muroki would also need their help again or not. "Hey, Lina, I was wondering... what if they or us move in closer temporarily, so that if they need help from us, we won't be so far away?" He wasn't even sure if there was anywhere close to them where they can stay, but it was worth finding out.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina listened to Delano carefully, thinking about it. On one paw her and Delano's den wasn't that far away from Umeme and Muroki's den but, on the other, the closer they were to each other the easier it would be for either her sister or her brother in law to ask for their help and the faster they would receive it. "It most certainly won't hurt..." she said, still thinking. "But I don't think they'll want us to be around in their den too much... They'll probably want to have some space."

She shrugged, realizing they could worry about that later. Right now she wanted to see her sister and make sure everything was okay. "Come on, I'll race you the rest of the way!" During the course of the past month Delano has had plenty of time to run around, so she knew he wouldn't have a problem keeping up with her. The two came to a halt a short distance away from the den they were looking for. After catching her breath, Lina went inside. Like she'd expected, her sister was there. "Hey!" she said, walking over to Umeme and giving her a short nuzzle as a greeting. "How's it going?"

[DGFone]

Delano was caught off guard when Lina suddenly ran past him, and he considered it totally unfair that she simply randomly decided to race. "Hey, wait!" However, he was no longer as out of shape as before, and didn't have too much trouble catching up, grinning triumphantly at Lina as he reached her side. "You can't run away from me anymore!"

They reached Muroki's and Umeme's den and slowed down. He let Lina go in first, figuring that Umeme won't mind as much if it was her sister who went in, versus if he stuck his head in first.

Inside the den, Umeme looked up when she heard Lina call out. "Lina!" She returned her sister's hug. "I'm all right. Muroki is out hunting. I think he should be back soon."

Upon hearing this as he walked in, Delano asked, "Hunting? when did he leave?"

Umeme frowned. "Not too long ago. If you run fast enough, I think you will catch up with him." Before she could blink, Delano had already left the den in search of Muroki.

[TheWhistlerify]

Before Lina could say anything else to Umeme, Delano had already decided he wanted to go help his brother hunting and he was out of the den in a matter of seconds. Smiling, Lina looked back at her sister. "He's always thinking about trying to help the two of you out." she said with a chuckle, lying down next to Umeme. "He even suggested that we temporarily move in to a den that's closer to you so that we'll be nearby if you need us." She chuckled again.

Deciding to bring the subject up again later once Muroki would be back, Lina let the matter drop. "So what have you two been up to?" she asked, curious. "Anything out of the ordinary?" She knew that her sister was no longer capable of hunting for herself and that, at some point in the future, she'd even have a hard time walking around too much. "I guess you're just waiting for Muroki to come back, huh?" It was probably annoying to be left alone in the den, which was why Lina was glad she could be there in order to keep her sister company.

~~~

Muroki meanwhile was stalking a group of antelopes. Failing a hunt now that Umeme was pregnant and coming back to the den with nothing was out of the question. Not succeeding meant having to try over and over again, and he wanted to get back to his mate's side as soon as possible. Even if he probably was worried for no reason about her being alone in the den, the idea of her being on her own and doing nothing but wait for him was equally annoying.

Eying the antelopes, he was able to see a fully grown one that had a slight limp in one of its legs. The lion didn't know the reason, but he didn't care too much. What he did care about was that he'd found something he should be able to take down easily and that he would be back with Umeme soon. After coming as close as Muroki thouht he could without alerting any of the antelopes, he pounced and sprinted at his target.

While the antelope's limp wasn't too severe, it certainly was enough to allow Muroki to close the gap between them without too much difficulty. The male lion tackled the antelope to the ground, clinging onto it with his claws as the two of them rolled together in a heap. While squirming and throwing its like about in a panic, the antelope managed to hit him across the cheek with one of its hooves, but the lion soon regained his bearings and ended its struggle by biting into the antelope's throat.

[DGFone]

Umeme laughed at the idea of doing anything out of the ordinary. "Us? With me like this? We hardly have been doing anything. Of course, it's only going to get worse, so I need to get used to it soon..." She looked at Lina, grinning. "You really are lucky. You never know how much being able to walk whenever and wherever you want to is a luxury."

She laughed again, "Of course, when I told that to Muroki, he simply looked at me all knowingly and told me that now I know how he felt. Although last time I checked, we didn't get any cubs from when he was immobilized." She looked down at her swelling stomach. "Can't wait for the little guys to come out. It's be such a big deal for us..." She glanced at Lina hesitantly. "Have you and Delano thought... about also starting a family? I know you told me that he still isn't sure, but perhaps he might have changed his mind."

---

Delano ran as fast as he could, searching for his brother. Muroki was nowhere in sight, but the startled cry from some antelope, followed by the low rumble as a herd scattered, brought his attention to where Muroki might be. Running closer to where the noise came from, Delano relaxed when he saw the other lion on the ground with a catch in his jaws.

Running over, Delano stopped next to Muroki. "I arrived as soon as Umeme told me that you left hunting, I was hoping that I might help," he saw some blood on Muroki's face that didn't look like it came from the catch. "You - you're hurt." He reached out with a paw to brush the blood off, and relaxed when Muroki didn't react apart from a slight wince. It wasn't a serious wound.

Grabbing one end of the kill, Delano picked it up so that Muroki wouldn't need to carry everything. "At least I can help you bring it back," he muttered through the fur of the antelope.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina couldn't help but laugh when Umeme told her that, while she now knew how Muroki had felt, him being immobolized didn't result in cubs being born. "That's true." she said, nodding her head. "But don't you feel like it'll all be worth it in the end? I mean..." she briefly looked at her sister's stomach. "There are living cubs growing up inside you... Kind of hard to grasp, isn't it?"

When Umeme brouht up the subject of her starting a family with Delano, she blushed slightly and shook her head. "Last time I brought it up was when we found our new den." she said. "He said he still wasn't ready. I haven't brought it up since then..." In a way, she was hoping that maybe seeing his brother and Umeme go through with this would give her mate the encouragement he needed.

~~~

Muroki lay there by the dead antelope, slowly catching his breath. He was a little surprised when Delano came over, having not expected that in the slightest. Because of how happy he was at having caught something for his mate, he only remembered the cut on his cheek when his brother mentioned it and brushed some of the blood off with his paw. Muroki did the same, looking down at the blood on his paw for a brief moment. It wasn't bleeding to an extent that made the lion worry.

Placing his paw back down and rising to his paws, Muroki smiled as his brother offered to help him carry the antelope back. "Thanks, Delano." he said, grabbing the other end of his kill. The two brothers then began making their way back. "I take it Lina's with Umeme." He already couldn't wait to get back to his mate's side. "What have you two been doing?" Since he was busy looking after Umeme, he only knew what the two were up to when they were visiting them. So, in a way, he knew nothing.