[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Delano chuckled, a little bit nervously. For some reason, he thought it odd that he had slept in longer than Lina had. "Well, yeah, I guess it was a good thing..." Briefly glancing at their son, he also added, "but you know... watching you chase Akili around like that... I rather enjoyed it."

If when they get over to Muroki's and Umeme's... Delano was rather hoping that the cubs would right away find a way to occupy themselves with, which shouldn't be too hard. Then he would be able to relax again, and hopefully, this time with Lina next to him as well. Muroki and Umeme should know better than to tease them should they decide to cuddle up together, since they weren't like Lina's and Umeme's mother, so Delano wasn't worried about getting teased.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina smiled, unable to tell why Delano was being a little nervous. Most of the time her mate's nervousness had no explanation, which was what made it so cute. "I quite love messing around with him, you know?" she asked. "I mean, not only because Akili reminds me of when I was little, but also because it's just great to help him have a good time." She just couldn't get enough of hearing her son's laughter. "That gleam in his eyes reminds me of you so much..." She chuckled. "And whenever I pin him or something he just whines and says that he'll get me back as soon as he becomes as big and strong as you are." Giggling, she licked her mate across his muzzle. "I think your brother and I are going to be in a lot of trouble one day, what with all the noogies he always gives him..."

[DGFone]

Delano eyed Lina curiously. "I can understand why he would want to get at Muroki in the future, but why you? Is it because of all of those baths you give him?" He grinned. "But anyways, something make me think that by the time he will be big enough to actually carry out his threats, he would have completely forgotten about them."

They then walked in some silence, only exchanging the occasional word or phrase. Delano took the opportunity to simply think about things, including the realization that he too forgot this morning about Akili potentially being afraid of him. Perhaps things would end up being all right after all. After all, by sleeping in, he had caught his son off guard, so if Akili was still afraid in any way, he would have shown it...

Speaking of sleeping in. "Lina, I just realized... we left rather late today to go over to Umeme and Muroki. What if they won't be there when we get there?" There was always a possibility that his brother and sister-in-law took their cubs somewhere as well.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina giggled. "I think he's simply grumpy about not being able to free himself whenever I decided to do something with him." Either way, Delano was probably right. Akili would most likely forget about all the threats he'd made by the time he became old enough. Actually, that depended on just how long his uncle planned on constantly teasing him for being so tiny. "Where do you think they might have gone?" she asked, having not considered the possibility that Umeme and Muroki might have left and gone somewhere with their cubs.

As far as she was concerned, usually whenever the two of them left their den they either came over to them or to her and Umeme's parets. It was a possibility that Muroki wanted to visit his aunt. Maybe they'd even decided to show the hidden waterhole to heir cubs. Lina doubted they'd gone to see Hatari again without her and Delano, though. "Well, we're just going to have to wait and see, it seems."

[DGFone]

Delano rolled his eyes at Lina's question. "What do you mean where could they have gone? Do we ourselves not go places all the time with Akili?" For this, he got a light slap in the muzzle by Lina, but because she was able to tell that he was mostly teasing her, she hit him only lightly.

Still, deciding not to say something else that would earn him another beating, Delano chose to take his mate's advice and simply see whether or not Muroki and Umeme would be in or around their den when they will get there. Akili certainly seemed excited enough to get there as quickly as possible. Delano found himself wondering if it was even a good idea or not to teach the cub how to run properly - the cub was already significantly faster than even not too long ago. Still nowhere near as fast as Delano and Lina, but the cub's parents could no longer leisurely stroll behind the cub when Akili was in a hurry.

It certainly looked like all those games of chasing someone around were stating to pay off.

[TheWhistlerify]

As much as Lina preferred to simply walk at her own pace with Delano, it was impossible for her not to chuckle at Akili's enthusiasm. If this kept going on, the little cub might now have any energy left to play with his cousins by the time they got there. Well, that was probably an exaggeration, but her son's energy levels often did surprise her, despite having seem him excited way more than once and despite having a niece that was much more unstable in that regard. Akili was only going to get bigger and faster, so it looked as if the peaceful strolls were over and done with.

Arriving at their destinaion, Lina was glad to see that her sister and brother-in-law were outside the den with their cubs, meaning that Akili's enhusiasm hasn't been for nothing. The two adults looked as if they were trying to enjoy the sun but were always distracted mostly by their daughter, who obviously wasn't intimidated by bath threats. But, Ubawa could be blamed just as much for not keeping Marini occupied. Yeah, having 2 cubs was certainly a bigger pawful. When the two slightly older cubs noticed their cousin, aunt and uncle, they immediately ran over to greet them.

[DGFone]

Nearing the den, Delano was rather relieved to find Muroki and Umeme already there - he was already beginning to imagine having to deal with Akili's disappointment at his cousin and aunt and uncle not being there. His own two nephews, who saw them approaching, immediately ran over to say hello, much to Delano's displeasure - he had already seen that his brother and sister-in-law were not having as good of a morning as he and Lina had.

However, cubs being cubs, Akili ran at his cousins and they all promptly forgot to say hello, instead choosing to start chasing each other straight away. So instead, Delano and Lina walked over to Muroki and Umeme. "Hello you two," Delano greeted, "how's the morning going?"

Muroki and Umeme didn't look like they hated the morning, but they certainly did look distracted, much to Delano's amusement. "You know... Lina and I can watch over the cubs if you want to take a break."

[TheWhistlerify]

Having not noticed the fact that Delano and Lina were there, Muroki only became aware of their presence when his brother spoke to him. "Oh, hey." he said, smiling at the two of them. It just so happened that, on that particular morning, Marini was being much louder and clingier than usual, which was why it was a good thing that her cousin was now there to cause a distraction. "Well, I dunno..." He wasn't going to tell them that he and his mate had taken quite the break a few days ago, of course. So, basically, the decision was Umeme's. They could go into the den if she wanted to, but with Akili occupying their cubs there should be enough peace outside as well. "Umeme?" It depended on just how much she felt like hearing all the squealing and laughter of the little fluffballs. It ought to be less loud inside, especially if they'd enter their inner den.

[DGFone]

To Umeme, the thought of letting Delano and Lina was certainly a tempting one. However, much like Muroki, she too felt that they had only very recently taken a rather large and well deserved break. Therefore, the idea of taking another one just seemed rather greedy.

"I think we'll be fine," she replied, "but you two are welcome to join us. Come and sit down." She waited until Delano and Lina sat down next to them. "So how did you two have your past few days?" Of course Umeme didn't know about what had happened these past few days between Delano and Akili.

And Delano didn't see a reason why she had to know either. "Well..." he quickly glanced a nervous glance at Lina, "it went alright. We took Akili to see Kasi, who introduced him to Nyoka."

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina also didn't think that there was any reason to tell Muroki and Umeme of what had happened. After all, Akili seemed to have long forgotten about it all. As long as they didn't accidentally remind him, nobody would ever think that anything has ever been up up. There really would be no point in causing a fuss over nothing - since Akili was alright and it had all been an accident.

Muroki smiled as Delano mentioned Kasi and his younger brother. "Oh, really?" he asked. "How did it go?" Nyoka was about as old as Akili and either Marini or Ubawa combined, so he was a little curious. It was impossible for him not to smile whenever he thought about his little cousin. After his aunt had been told that she might never be able to have cubs again following the loss of her unborn ones, it was definitely an enormous joy to even hear Nyoka being mentioned. There was no doubt that Laini and Dakari were very grateful for the fact that they managed to have another cub in the end like they wanted to.