[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Kasi shook his head about living with his parents. "I'm old enough to be on my own now, and mom and dad need to concentrate on Nyoka anyways," he said, referring to his younger brother by name. "It's not like I'm alone or anything. I still hang out with my friends all the time, but not as much as I used to." He grinned at Lina. "Just because I moved out doesn't mean I don't pay my family a visit just about every day," he told the lioness.

Looking down at Akili, he thought of an idea. "Nyoka should be slightly older than you," he muttered, "but not by much..." Kasi lit up again, "So why don't we all go over there and visit right now? There's not much to do here anyways except sleep." While Lina, Umeme, and their mates had already met his younger brother before, he wasn't aware if Akili had or not, which meant that most likely, he didn't. "Come on. It's not that far or a walk."

He lead Lina and Akili out the den and they proceeded to walk over to his parents' den. While Akili thought that it would have been better if Delano had been here as well, the fact that Lina didn't sound worried about him staying home was enough for him not to worry as well. It's not like they can't do this with Delano later anyways.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina couldn't help but chuckle as Kasi made sure to inform her that he visited his parents and younger brother on a daily basis. "I should hope so." she said, smiling at her friend. After all, considering how close Kasi's den was to that of his parents as well as how he didn't have a family of his own or a mate to look after; his mother probably nagged him about coming over more often than the frequency in which Lina's parents kept asking her and her sister to bring the grandchildren over.

She was about to directly bring up the subject of Kasi living on his own again but, thinking about it, his own parents were probably bringing it up enough as it was if she knew them well enough. Nyoka was older than Marini and Ubawa as well, but she'd obviously met the cub before and knew that he was well behaved enough to let Akili interact with him despite the bigger age difference in comparison to the one her son shared with his cousins. Kasi's younger brother had been born somewhere around the time where she became pregnant, but she still doubted the two cubs would have a problem getting along.

As they left the den, Akili was obviously unable to conceal his enthusiasm. So far he's seen his father's cousin and a new den, and now he was going to see his father's aunt and uncle and finally meet Kasi's younger brother, who he has heard about in the past. This day was only getting better. True, his father wasn't there, but there was enough going on in order to make the cub forget about Delano's absence. Lina simply chuckled at her son's antics. She hadn't planned to do anything besides taking Akili to see Kasi, but it was about time she took him to meet Kasi's brother. She also imagined that Delano's aunt and uncle would be happy to see the cub as well.

[DGFone]

It was basically impossible for Kasi not to notice how excited Akili was to go and meet someone else. Feeling like teasing Lina for a bit, Kasi turned his head towards her and asked, "How often do you let him outside?" When she looked at him quizzically, he grinned and motioned his head at the cub. "Look how eager he is. It's almost like he spends his days staring at a wall."

He raised an eyebrow at Lina. "I hope that's not what you're doing to him. 'Cause I thought I knew you better." Kasi hopped away before Lina could get a swipe at him with a paw. "Now watch it Lina! We're almost there!" Sure enough, they were almost at his parents' den.

Walking faster to announce their presence, Kasi called out to what he hoped was not an empty den. "Mom! Dad! Nyoka! It's me! And I brought someone familiar alone too!"

[TheWhistlerify]

Listening to Kasi as he talked, Lina couldn't help but shoot her friend a playful glare at what he was saying. But he really did know her well enough, because he hopped away before she had a chance to playful swipe at him (claws sheathed, of course). One thing that never seemed to change about Kasi was the way he sometimes acted a little immaturely. But, in many ways, that was what she liked about him so much. Whenever he behaved in such a manner he easily reminded her of when the two of them and her sister were cubs.

Laughing a short laugh, because Kasi just seemed to always be able to get her to, she rolled her eyes as Akili continued running about around them as they walked. "I let him outside often enough, thank you very much." she said, glaring at him one more time. Sure, had the cub they were talking about been paying more attention, she would have never heard the end of him siding with his "uncle" on that one. Sometimes his seemingly endless energy was a good thing, in a way.

Sure enough, once the den they were heading towards came into view, her son's excitement became even greater than it already was. Luckily he was not disappointed because, a few seconds after Kasi called out, Laini came out of the den. The older lioness smiled as she saw who her son had brought along with him. "Akili, Lina! What a surprise!" she said, nuzzling her great nephew as he cub ran over to her. Seeing either one of her nephews' cubs was always such a delight. It reminded her that, while her sisters was dead, her sons had managed to move on. Even though she wished their parents could have met their own grandcubs, that was still a comforting thought.

Chuckling as Akili continued rubbing himself against her legs, she gave Lina a short hug as the younger lioness walked over to her. It was still a little weird to see the energetic and rather trouble making lioness cub she'd looked after every once in a while with a cub of her own. "Nyoka's inside with your father." she said, looking at Kasi. "He's giving him one of his punishment baths..." she rolled her eyes as she said that, smiling as she heard her older son chuckle. Dakari seemed to haven't gotten over his habit of torturing a cub with a bath, but Kasi had to get his occasional overgrown immaturity from somewhere...

[DGFone]

Kasi pretended to look horrified at what his mother just said. "Dad's doing what to him?" Of course Kasi was only pretending, but it was still something funny to do. "Mom, do you know how many seasons it took me to get over those horrible memories? And now dad is forcing Nyoka to do that all over again?"

He then broke into a grin. "I'm just kidding. It's not so bad after you get used to it." Walking inside the den, he soon spotted his father and younger brother. "Dad! Nyoka! It's me." Sure enough, his younger brother was looking very annoyed to be in between his father's paws, forced to endure a bath. Kasi chuckled at the sight. "Dad, I think he's clean enough now. Besides, there's someone you should meet outside." Even from in the den, he could hear his mother already interacting with Lina and Akili. "Lina brought their cub over," Kasi said simply, "and by the sound of it, he's almost getting ready to rush head first into here."

While it would be a funny sight, Kasi thought that it would be a better idea if they went outside and met the cub there instead. His father must have had similar thoughts, because he let Nyoka go.

"Alright Kasi brings up a good point. Let's go outside and see the new guy." Dakari followed his two sons out of the den, also looking forward to seeing Akili.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina couldn't help but giggle at Kasi's antics, though his mother simply rolled her eyes playfully at his fake horror. "You know your father well enough." she pointed out as her son walked past her and entered the den. There were times, especially when her mate and Kasi were together, that their immaturity annoyed her but, mostly, she thought this particular resemblance between them was cute. Sure enough, no later than a few seconds after Kasi had entered the cave, the sound of a very excited Nyoka could be heard from within. He was obviously very excited about seeing his brother there and about finally getting to meet Akili, who Marini and Ubawa had told him about before. But, Laini had the impression that Nyoka was mostly happy at having been given an excuse to be released from his bath.

Smiling warmly as her younger son came running out of the den, Laini gave him a quick nuzzle as well as an affectionate lick when he arrived by her side. However, because Nyoka was too distracted by the younger and smaller cub's presence, he didn't complain at what could have been misinterpreted as the potential start of another cleaning procedure. "Now, sweetie, do you remember the cousin Ubawa and Marini told you about?" Her younger son was a little bigger than Muroki and Umeme's cubs, but Akili didn't seem to be even slightly bothered by that.

As was to be expected, after a short exchange of words between the two little hairballs, they were already busy chasing each other about in a rather loud manner. "Make sure not to play too roughly, Nyoka!" Laini doubted that her son had any bad intentions, but the size difference between the two cubs could result in Akili accidentally getting hurt a little. Lina, on the other hand, didn't seem to worried. She'd seen Kasi's brother play with her niece and nephew before and doubted he wouldn't listen to his mother after having been told the exact same thing when he'd played with Marini and Ubawa.

[DGFone]

Dakari was quite delighted to see that Lina had brought Akili along this time around. "It's good to see you again Lina," he said warmly, but because he wasn't told of the reason, he also asked, "where's Delano by the way? Normally he would be with you?" He lowered his voice. "Nothing happened to him, has it?" Sure, Lina looked fine, but with Akili around now, she could easily be pretending that nothing is wrong when something could be. And knowing just how much this family tends to get into trouble, it wasn't being paranoid to assume that something did happen. At least, Dakari really hoped that he was wrong this time.

Kasi, who overheard this, shook his head. "Lina said that he didn't feel to well I think. Something about feeling tired. Right, Lina?" He looked over at the lioness for clarification. Then deciding that it might be better to just let her explain everything, he turned his attention back to watching his brother play around with Akili. At the moment, the two cubs were busy chasing each other around the area next to the den, with Akili doing most of the chasing for obvious reasons.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina smiled back at Dakari, and was about to answer his question regarding Delano, which seemed to obviously be of interest to Laini as well, when Kasi beat her to it. "Yes, Delano's just tired." she explained, hoping that her mate had managed to fall back asleep and wasn't just pacing around the den with nothing to do or something else of the sort. "He said it would be better if I took Akili out on my own today and I suddenly remembered that he still hasn't met Nyoka yet." Smiling, she looked at the two cubs as they played.

"I thought, even if Delano wasn't coming with me to see you, that Akili would enjoy coming here." It didn't look like her son had any problem with doing most of the chasing, really, despite clear disadvantage he was in. "And he sees his cousins almost every day anyway." As much as she doubted that Akili would have had a problem with going to play with his cousins, she still felt like changing things up a bit. It's been a while since she'd last seen Kasi, his parents and his brother, too.

At the mention of her other nephew's cubs, Laini figured she might as well ask. After all Lina and Delano saw Muroki and Umeme much more often than she did. "How are they all doing, really?"

"Oh, they're perfectly fine." said Lina with a smile. "We saw them just yesterday. Marini seems to be becoming even more unstable with every passing day, though." she added, in an obviously joking tone. "Umeme and Muroki keep arguing about who she got that from."

"Well, she definitely did not get it from her father, that's for sure." replied the older lioness with a chuckle. "I'd say that's her grandfather's contribution."

"Dad?" asked Lina, raising an eyebrow in surprise.

"No, dear, her other grandfather." She didn't seem to have a problem mentioning her brother in law. "He used to drive my sister crazy when we were little."

[DGFone]

Kasi grunted after Lina explained why Delano wasn't with them. "Hey, Lina, if I recall correctly, bringing him here was my idea." It was a very minor thing, but it was still something which he felt that he needed to correct her in. After all, he didn't want to appear too useless in front of his parents and brother.

Meanwhile, Dakari was instead paying attention to what his mate was saying. "Yeah, they were at each other's throats all the time," he said with a chuckle, "I was so surprised when they decided to marry, but I guess they knew what they were doing if Muroki and Delano are to guess by."

He watched as the cubs continued to chase each other, oblivious to what the adults were talking about. "It will be nice if we can get everyone together soon," he suggested after some time, "get all the cubs together, see how everyone's doing..." As nice as it was to have Lina and Akili over, he thought that it would be even nicer to have Delano and Muroki and Umeme along with their two cubs as well. Not to mention that it will mean that Nyoka won't be so under-matched if he would have to play with Ubawa and Marini, who are older than Akili and therefore able to put up a better fight than Lina's and Delano's son.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina had to resist the urge to roll her eyes and tell Kasi that, after taking Akili to see him, she'd also intended to bring him over to meet Nyoka for the first time as well. But, since it seemed like his parents weren't paying much attention to them anyway, she decided to just let the matter drop. Laini, meanwhile, continued. "I still remember the day I found the two of them cuddled up together. We were adolescents at the time, but I was too surprised by what I was seeing in order to tease them about it at the time." Chuckling, she looked at Lina. "Your mother, however..."

Lina found it impossible not to giggle at what she was hearing. "Sounds about right..." If Delano and Muroki's parents used to argue and give each other hell all the time, she could only imagined how much the two of them got teased once their relationship had been discovered, especially if her mother was involved in the matter. Then, looking at Dakari, she smiled at his suggestion. "That sounds great." she said. "My parents could come as well. They always complain about how Umeme and I don't bring the cubs over to them enough as it is. I'm sure they'll be happy to see all of their 3 grandchildren at the same time."

Kasi's mother, meanwhile, was staring at her older son, who at some point gave her a rather knowing frown in return. "What?" she asked innocently, shrugging her shoulders. "You can't blame a lioness for wanting grandcubs, Kasi."