[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Delano grinned foolishly at Lina. "Well, I guess it could have been a lot worse," he admitted after some hesitation. He didn't know if Lina had seen how close he had gotten to attacking Hatari a few times, but he didn't feel comfortable telling her. "It's just that... you know that if it wasn't for Akili, that I wouldn't have come..." Even though he had allowed the lion to interact with their son, Delano still couldn't convince himself to trust Hatari. He still had a long way to go until he could truly comfortable around the lion, and wasn't sure if he would ever even be able to do that.

Umeme giggled at how Muroki complained about Lina. "Guess she learned from the best," she told her mate, who clearly didn't really like being teased. "Besides, I do that all the time to her and Delano. So I guess it's only fair that she does the same to us. Keeps things interesting, you know?" Still, it would be nice to sometimes not being teased, but Umeme felt that in the end, she liked how they tease one another all the time. Just that Lina usually gets better opportunities because Umeme is not as afraid to show her affections to Muroki no matter who's around.

[TheWhistlerify]

Still smiling at Delano, Lina went ahead and took the liberty of giving him a quick lick across his muzzle. "I know." It would be rather silly of her to critircize him for that seeing how the exact same thing could be said about her. "But you put your own reservations aside for our cub's sake." she said, continuing to smile as she saw the way Akili was sleeping so peacefully on his father's head. "That's what really maters." To emphasize her point, she licked him again. "It's why you're a good faher, like we all told you you'd be."

Muroki couldn't help but chuckle a little when Umeme mentioned how she also teased Lina and Delano about this sort of thing. Having Lina tease them did seem far less annoying whenever his mate managed to give her sister a taste of her own medicine. "The problem is that she doesn't tease us very often. We can't know when to predict it, but when she does..." He didn't feel like bringing up some of the more embarrassing examples, which he had a pretty good feeling Umeme remembered as well. "But, in the end, I supose this is kind of fun..."

~ ~ ~

"I know it might not look like it at the moment, Hatari, but I mean you no harm." continued the Chief of Police eventually, after what seemed like a pretty long silence. Hatari has never done anything to him in particular and, if he had a brain, he would keep it that way. Although, there was no denying that the temptation to eliminate this possible nuisance was rather great. "Tell me, do you sometimes miss the way they all screamed?" he asked all of a sudden.

"What?" asked Hatari, not sure of what to make of the question.

"Why, your victims, of course, when you slowly and painfully ended their lives. Surely you miss the adrenaline..."

"I may have been a killer," Hatari frowned, "But I wasn't a sadistic psychopath." Not that it made him any better, but he'd killed his targets quickly at the time...

"Don't you just long for these things again?"

"No." replied he latter, his voice a low growl this time.

[DGFone]

Delano turned even more red as Lina licked him. "Well, uh... if you say so." While it was true that he felt much more confident about helping raise Akili, he still didn't know if he was ready to call himself a good father or not. Of course, not knowing when he could actually decide once and for all if he was or not was very mind boggling to say the least. "I'm just glad that nothing bad happened." The last thing he will ever want to do is have to fight in front of Akili.

Umeme just grinned at Muroki and licked him again. "That's the spirit!" she reassured him, "so don't worry about her. It's all in good fun." She eyed her mate slyly. "Or is showing me affection so embarrassing that you will stop doing it just so that Lina wouldn't tease you anymore?" Playfully bearing her teeth at him, she added with a 'stern' voice, "not in a million years."

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina found it impossible not to giggle at Delano's antics. Sometimes his nervousness was just too much for her to handle, even if she did wish he would learn to accept a compliment every now and then. "So am I." she said with a smile. "And Akili had a really good time, too." She didn't know what to make of their visit other than the fact that they'd made the right decision by letting their son meet Hatari for who he really was. She wasn't sure as to her own opinion of the lion just yet.

Muroki playfully raised an eyebrow at his mate. "If it were so embarrassing," he said with a sly grin, "then I would have stopped a long time ago." Resisting the urge to do anything too silly while Ubawa was on her back, he flicked his tail at her again. "As a matter of fact I am offended that you would ever suggest such a thing." he added, pretending to be hurt. "I think you need to spend some time in our little inner den to think about what you've done. With me."

~ ~ ~

Hatari was getting more and more uncomfortable with the other lion's presence by the second. "You might see me again soon." said the Chief of Police as he turned around and finally took his leave. After all, he has barely even begun.

[DGFone]

Feeling slightly less embarrassed now, Delano nodded, but carefully so that Akili won't fall off. "Yeah, I saw. He really did enjoy today." Even if he himself couldn't get himself to enjoy being around Hatari, he wasn't willing to force his son not to have a good time either. "Although, I do have to wonder how Umeme knew that the cubs would have a good time. She was quite insistent on all of us going." Glancing over to his sister in law, he saw that she wasn't paying any attention, occupied by her own conversation with Muroki.

Knowing right away what Muroki was talking about, Umeme blushed, but quickly regained her composure and shook her head. "Not when the cubs are around. You're going to have to get rid of them first." It's not like she didn't want to spend time alone with Muroki, so she was already thinking of exactly to get the cubs away. "We could always drop them off with these two," she motioned at Lina and Delano, "let the three cubs run around. Or we can always let mom and dad spend time with them. You know how much mom complains that we don't bring the cubs over enough."

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina hadn't even the slightest clue as to how her sister had known that the cubs would enjoy being in Hatari's company. The very idea of meeting a new lion must have been a factor. "I guess it's because she and Muroki are Hatari's friends. They're used to being in his company and they trust him far more than we do..." She didn't know whether she and Delano would ever become so comfortable around the lion in question, but she was willing to keep an open mind for the time being. Either way, Akili would most likely want to see him again sometime in the near future.

Muroki couldn't resist the extremely childish urge to give Umeme a fake look of horror when she told him that he was going to have to get rid of the cubs first. Of course she didn't mean it like that, but he still couldn't help himself. However, he soon dropped the act and also looked in the direction of his brother and sister-in-law. "We could." Umeme's parents did often say that they wished they could see their grandcubs more often. "But Lina and Delano do get to see Ubawa and Marini far more often than your parents do."

[DGFone]

Delano looked at his brother uncertainly. "It's just that... I don't understand how Muroki can be so trusting. He knows what Hatari did. What if he were to do it again? What if he lost control?" He looked at the ground and shook his head slowly, almost forgetting about their son on top. "I don't know if I'll be able to ever forget that, and... I am still not sure if I will want Akili to see him again. I know he enjoyed today's visit, but what if there was some hidden threat which we weren't aware of? I think... I think Muroki and Umeme are too trusting of him." He cast another worried glance to his brother and sister in law. Sure, they looked occupied, but what if they overheard something? If they did, they didn't look like it.

Umeme grinned back at Muroki. "Then my parents it is then! Now that it's settle,d how long are you willing to wait until you will need to..." grinning, she looked for a fitting term, "re-educate me?" Giving him another lick across the cheek, she bolted off as quickly as she could with Ubawa on her back without disturbing him. Muroki had an advantage now because Marini was more securely settled on him, but she also knew that they wanted to still let the cubs sleep, so he won't go as fast as he could.

[TheWhistlerify]

Following Delano's gaze, Lina also looked at Muroki and Umeme, who looked as if they were rather enjoying their conversation about whatever it was they were talking about. "They're trusting him mainly because of the incident at the gorge, I think." she reminded him. "Heck, if it weren't for him, Kato would be dead, Muroki would be dead and Sanders would possibly still be on the loose somewhere." It made her dizzy to think that Ubawa and Marini wouldn't have even been born if it weren't for the former member of the underworld's involvement. "And if he were still alive then who knows how long it would have taken him to go after you?" As much as it sounded crazy, the truth was that Hatari was the main reason things had turned out so well in the end.

Muroki couldn't help but snicker to himself at Umeme's rather... amusing choice of words. However, before he could answer his mate, she took off . Yes, she didn't run very quickly because their son was on her back, but by the time he started to give chase she'd already caught up to Delano and Lina, who weren't that far ahead of them. As tempting as it was to retaliate to that, the flirting was going to have to wait. Smiling, he walked alongside her, his brother and sister-in-law. "So how are you two holding up?" he asked, looking at the two of them and at Akili who looked simply adorable with the way he was sleeping in his father's mane.

"We're alright." said Lina, smiling as well. "Going there wasn't bad and Akili had a good time, so I'm glad we came."

"That's good to hear."

[DGFone]

At least partially agreeing with what Lina had just told him, Delano remained silent. A part of him was telling him that he really was being foolish for not trusting Hatari by now, but he simply couldn't get himself to let go of the last reservations he had for the lion. When he was about to finally make a reply, Umeme and Muroki had already caught up and he quickly changed his mind about continuing the conversation.

"Yeah, we're alright," he said calmly. There was no point in getting them worried just because he wasn't entirely convinced that going over to Hatari was a good idea.

Umeme grinned. "Great! I know Ubawa and Marini really enjoyed it, so how about doing this again fairly soon? In about several day's time?" She was thinking that she wanted to give the cubs at least one day of rest after today, and then she also had that thing with Muroki planned...

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina couldn't help herself from chuckling at her sister's enthusiasm with how well the day had turned out. Thinking about it, she realized that Umeme's satisfaction was rather justified. However, when her sister then suggested that they went to Hatari again soon, Lina was taken a little by surprise. But she should have seen the question coming at one point or another. After all, Akili hasn't really gotten to know well Hatari yet, not to mention that he was far too young in order to be able to judge him for who he was now.

Also, sooner or later, the cub would most likely want to go again, seeing how he'd had so much fun this time around. Looking at Delano for a brief moment, she doubted he'd have as many reservations about this in comparison to the morning. "I suppose that Akili will want to see him again soon." If they denied him that then he would obviously become confused and question their logic, something which they were trying to avoid. "And he had a really good time today... So I guess that kind of settles it."

It was then that Muroki became aware of the fact that they had arrived back to his and Umeme's den. It was still a few minutes' walk to his brother's den, but not too much. "Here we are." he said with a smile, chuckling as a quick indication informed him that both Marini and Ubawa were still sound asleep. "I guess we'll see you again pretty soon, huh?" It would be a lie to say that he was as drained by the day's events as his cubs were , but the little hairballs would be much warmer sleeping inside. He imagined that Delano and Lina wanted to get Akili home, too.