[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Umeme smiled and nodded at Hatari. "You really are learning fast, not to mention that you had Kato to teach you a lot of things. Delano over there," she motioned with her head at her brother in law, "poor fellow was way out of his league at first. He got a lot better at it, but the first time he had to deal with a cub," Umeme let out a giggle at the memory, "he did a lot worse than you, although he wasn't terrible."

Much like Muroki, she also was rather surprised at how quickly the cubs had taken a liking to Hatari, although it wasn't something that she didn't expect. Since they didn't tell them what Hatari did in the past, there was no reason for the cubs to have any reason to hate the lion. For them, he was just another adult to play with.

As for Hatari's joke, she didn't think he really needed to joke about it. "It's not a big deal for us to come over," she said again with a smile, "so if you want us to, we always can. I'm sure the cubs wouldn't mind - you heard how they got when they saw you."

[TheWhistlerify]

Hatari couldn't help but grin slightly as Umeme mentioned her brother in law's first interaction with his niece, which Kato had already told him about a while ago during one of his visits. "Yeah, Kato told me about that..." He didn't know how big Marini had been at the time of her birth, but she sure was just as adventurous at the time, not to mention that the thought of her taking a fully grown lion's paw into captivity was both adorable and amusing.

Muroki also chuckled. "Yeah, we knew from the day she was born that she'd be the more troublesome one of the two." he said, smiling as he watched his daughter force Akili and Ubawa to keep chasing her around. At some point her cousin seemed to grow tired, which wasn't surprising giving his smaller size, and Muroki was quite surprised when she pounced at her brother as soon as Akili had stopped giving chase. Had she waited for there to be only one cub after her?

"Well what do you know?" he asked as she even managed to pin Ubawa down, only to once again take off when Akili decided he'd rested long enough. "Isn't she clever?" Grinning, he looked at his mate and Hatari. No wonder his son was keen to always have a go go at her whenever he had an opportunity to do so.

"Oh, yes." said Hatari with a grin. "Your little princess sure is something." It sure was funny to see Muroki glare at him while blushing. "So, um..." Rubbing the back of his head with a paw, he looked at Lina and Delano after a short hesitation. He hasn't said a single word to either one of them so far, and their presence was making things even more awkward for him because of that. "I guess interacting with Ubawa and Marini helped you prepare for when Akili was born, huh?"

Was he nervous in talking to Delano? He was. Was there anything better and less unrelated he could have said as a first exchange of words between him and the lion who was the most reserved about him? There most certainly was. Even though Akili's parents were watching their cub, they'd still heard him and realized who he had spoken to. Lina was a little surprised, and she had no idea how her mate would react to the former member of the underworld.

[DGFone]

When Hatari used "your little princess' to Muroki, Umeme had to struggle to hold back a laugh, not wanting to annoy her mate even more than he was already due to having this sore spot being poked at by the lion. Instead, she nuzzled him in order to get him to calm down.

With Hatari now focused on Delano and Lina, Umeme used the opportunity to talk to Muroki alone. "Come on now, hun, let him have a bit of fun," she said quietly. Sure, Muroki really didn't like it when his secret got out and became a joke, but Umeme doubted that Hatari got to joke around like that very often.

Next to them, Delano was taken by surprise to have Hatari address him. He didn't expect the lion to talk to him, and really, he liked it that way, so to have Hatari actually ask him a question directly was unexpected. "Wha-? Oh, uh... yeah, I guess it did," Delano felt a little annoyed at having been asked a question, because he really didn't want to interact with Hatari right now. However, he really didn't want to seem rude or look bad, especially in front of the cubs, which is why he actually bothered to answer, even if it was done very nervously. "I guess it helped..." he repeated again.

[TheWhistlerify]

The thought that Hatari probably didn't get to joke around very often (even with Kato dropping by every now and then) was actually what made his teasing even more unexpected. Who would have known that a silly, cute and random nickname for his adorable little daughter would end up causing Muroki this much embarrassment? Still, he liked the nickname, not to mention that Umeme's affectionate gesture immediately made him forget all about it as he smiled and nuzzled her back.

Hatari had obviously hoped that finally saying something to Delano and Lina would ease up the tension which, while interacting with either Umeme and Muroki or the cubs helped him shrug it off a little, was impossible for him to ignore. However, he found himself feeling just as nervous after finally getting an answer from Akili's father. The lion was clearly not very keen on talking to him, something which the former member of the underworld didn't find surprising at all.

Looking back at his two friends, he was surprised to see that they were entirely caught up with each other yet again. It became clear that they were more distracted than they looked when Muroki decided to assault his mate's neck, in a manner of speaking. Honestly, if he didn't know any better, Hatari would have thought that Umeme's mate was trying to kill her. Sheesh, these two... Turning his attention to the cubs, who were still running about rather aimlessly, he chuckled and slowly walked over to them.

As always, Marini was being forced to deal with both Ubawa and Akili at the same time. "How come you two always team up on her like that?" he asked, looking down at the three little hairballs as they stopped upon hearing his voice. Marini, seizing the opportunity, hid between the lion's legs. "That doesn't seem quite fair." The small lioness cub stuck her tongue out at her brother and cousin. Yes, Mr. Hatari! The silly boys keep cheating! They were totally in trouble now.

Meanwhile, noticing her mate's agitation, Lina placed one of her paws on Delano's and nuzzled him in an attempt to get him to relax.

[DGFone]

Ubawa looked up at Hatari, accidently letting his sister to escape. "It is fair!" he argued back, causing Hatari to raise an eye in curiosity, "she's bigger than us! It's only fair!" He didn't know if Hatari was buying it or not, because the lion was still allowing Marini to hide behind him. Eventually, Ubawa simply lost his patience and ran around the lion, determined to get his sister once more.

Watching as the cubs began to run around again, Umeme chuckled and nuzzled Muroki again. "Always playing around," she commented, "I still wonder how they get all that energy to play all day." Grinning, she added as well, "especially when Ubawa gets dirty and needs to be cleaned. Where does he get that energy from?"

Returning Lina's nuzzle, Delano was able to slowly calm down. "Talking to him was much harder than I expected," he admitted quietly, feeling slightly ashamed. He knew that Lina would like him to interact with Hatari some more for the sake of the cubs. "I... I don't want to do it again..."

[TheWhistlerify]

It was impossible for Hatari not to be very much amused by Ubawa's excuse. Perhaps it was one of those "she was born 5 minutes earlier" situations, because he couldn't see any actual size difference between the two cubs. "But you can wrestle your father to he ground!" Hatari remaked, blocking either him or his cousin as he and Akili kept chasing after Marini between his legs.

The female cub in particular was enjoying the whole situation the most. "Ubawa can't really knock daddy over!" she said in between giggles, much to her brother's already growing irritation. "Daddy just keeps letting him win! Only I can beat him!" Hatari almost laughed at her words. It was quite funny that she realized her sibling was being allowed to win but wasn't able to connect the dots and understand that the same was true about her as well.

Continuing to nuzzle Umeme, it was impossible for Muroki not to laugh a short laugh when his mate mentioned Ubawa's seemingly endless energy whenever a bath was involved. "He does seem to get one last burst of energy whenever it's bath time, doesn't he?" No matter how tired their son was, the very mention of a bath was always enough to trigger some hidden extra source of energy they always forgot the little cub possessed. Funny how, with his sister, baths were acually a good way to make her fall asleep if she was already tired.

Lina hadn't expected Delano to take too great a pleasure in talking to Hatari (even if she was still just as surprised that the former leader of the underworld had spoken to them). Nevertheless, the cubs weren't going to stay that small forever. One day their visits wouldn't consist of them simply running about with their focus on Hatari alone. They'd be confused if both she and her mate avoided interacting with the lion. Yes, she knew that she was in a similar position as Delano was. "It wasn't that bad, was it?" she asked quietly, nuzzling him again and placing one of her paws on his.

[DGFone]

Ubawa still tried to get after his sister, but it looked like Hatari was purposefully blocking him from doing so. Oh, so it's going to be like that, is it? "Well she's always picking on us!" he argued back, "besides, it's not like your not helping her right now! Now she can't even argue that we are being unfair." He stuck his tongue out at Marini, and once again tried to dodge a paw from Hatari as he tried to get at her. Next to him, while Akili wasn't trying to argue at the same time, the younger cub was also having trouble getting at Marini.

Another thing that Ubawa was somehow able to conveniently ignore enough not to realize what Marini said was how Muroki would allow him to knock him over. He still knew fully well that he was indeed string enough to wrestle down a fully grown lion. After all, didn't he just do that to Hatari as well?

Umeme giggled as she continued to return Muroki's nuzzle. "Yeah, it's amazing how he can get the energy to try and escape a bath, even if he's ready to pass out just moments before." It was also ironic how Marini, the normal trouble maker, was the one to be tamed by baths rather than made worse. Although, for Umeme, this fact was a very nice one. Sometimes Marini would drive her parents mad, especially if she teamed up with Ubawa. So to have her be the calm one at the end of the day was very nice.

Not knowing how to describe how he was feeling, Delano broke off the nuzzle with Lina. He motioned with his head for her to follow him before getting up and slowly walking off away from Hatari and the cubs. Deciding that he was far enough so that they won't be overheard, he sat down again, his head hung low. "I... I don't know how to feel about it," he finally said, not looking at Lina in the eye.

[TheWhistlerify]

As amusing as arguing with Ubawa was, Hatari couldn't deny the fact that the adorably grumpy cub was right. With the assistance Marini was getting, avoiding her brother and cousin was very easy indeed, and she was clearly enjoying herself very much. Hatari himself was having a good time too, even if it was at Ubawa and Akili's expense. Deciding he might as well not annoy the two little males too much, he stepped aside as Marini took off in another direction. She seemed to have grown bored of having such an easy time anyway.

Muroki happily carried on nuzzling his mate, easily failing to notice the fact that their daughter had her eyes settled on the two of them as a new option to run around in order to trick the two silly boys chasing her. Before he knew it, the three little balls of fluff were running and shouting all around and over them (him in particular). "Oi!" The cubs instantly froze and looked up at him, shrinking as they saw the stern frown on his face (despite the playful hint there was to it).

How dare they interrupt? They needed to know their place! "Shoo, scamper!" His son and daughter instantly fled, making it impossible for him not to chuckle slyly as Akili stumbled and fell over in his hurry to do the same. Looking up at his uncle, the little cub shrunk once again, realizing that he was trapped. "What are we going to do with you now?" The little fella had to be punished for his crimes! "I think you need another noogie!"

Before he could grab the cub and exact his revenge, however, he found himself being pushed over by a paw. Letting out a startled yelp, he looked up to see Hatari grinning down at him as Akili ran away. "Hey, I wasn't done with him!" he said grumpily but with a hint of amusement in his voice as he sat back up.

Meanwhile, after following her mate aside, Lina sat down next to Delano and silently listened to what he had to say. "But it wasn't that bad, was it?" she asked softly, nuzzling his cheek for a brief moment to get his attention. As uncomfortable as she knew he was, he probably couldn't deny that it probably hadn't been as bad as he must have thought it would have been. Speaking of which, she was probably going to have to start working on that as well soon...

[DGFone]

Umeme was also disappointed when they were interrupted by the cubs, who ran over to them. Or perhaps they were in the way of the cub's games. Either way, she really didn't expect Muroki to react the way he did, although she did find it very amusing because of his tone.

It was even funnier how Akili was 'saved' by Hatari, who seemed to have taken quite the delight in saving the poor cub from Muroki's punishment. "Hatari, the big hero," she teased to Muroki, "saving young cubs from their evil uncles." She playfully glared at her mate. "Perhaps it wasn't a good idea to threaten them." Deciding that they were interrupted for long enough by then, she leaned her head towards his, wanting to resume what they were doing before the cubs ran over.

Delano continued to avoid staring at Lina. "I don't know..." he whispered, "when he first talked to me... I wanted to attack him. I almost did..." He finally raised his head to look at his mate. "Lina... I just don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive him... to act normal around him..." While he was able to restrain himself to answer Hatari in a way that won't cause the cubs to be suspicious, he didn't want to make Lina believe that it was easier for him than it really was.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki grinned and rolled his eyes playfully at Umeme's remark. "Threaten?" Now that he was thinking about it, while a noogie was nothing at the end of the day, his nephew probably regarded it as something horrible and dreadful (even though he would always laugh whenever he received one). "Well, they should know their place." he said with a tone that suggested he was kidding to some extent. Because, even though he wasn't really mad at the cubs, he did feel a little bit annoyed because of their interruption.

Hatari, still watching the little hairballs as they retreated to a safe distance before carrying on with their game of 2 against 1, couldn't help but find the conversation between his two friends to be rather amusing. Not only could he not see himself as a hero, but it was also impossible to imagine Muroki being evil. However, at the same time, that's what made it entertaining. Looking at the two of them, he forgot what he was about to say when he saw the two of them were nuzzling, nibbling, cuddling and what not again.

"Oh, come on..." Seriously, how come it had taken them exactly 5 seconds to get completely distracted like that again? He'd actually been a little grateful towards the cubs for interrupting them for that exact reason. As a matter of fact, he was sometimes surprised that Umeme and Muroki never ended up accidentally forgetting that there were cubs nearby... Sheesh!

"Mommy and Daddy always do that!" Looking down, the lion chuckled as he saw Marini sitting there while looking up at him with that wide, innocent smile of hers. "Because they're in love!"

"Are they now?" asked Hatari as genuinely as he could, deciding to play along.

Marini giggled. "Yeah!" She then crouched exactly one second before Akili went flying over her head, having missed his target because of her little stunt. Ubawa followed an instant afterwards, landing on top of his younger cousin. The tiny lioness then pounced, standing over the two with a smug grin on her face. "Silly boys!" Licking their cheeks, she laughed and ran away again. Yeah, that annoyed them alright. Hatari, meanwhile, found the spectacle to be laughable, but he held his laughter in so to not agitate the two male cubs even further.

*

Lina was rather surprised to hear Delano say that he'd wanted to attack Hatari when the lion had first spoken to him. It certainly hadn't looked like he was moments away from attacking the former member of the underworld, which was what made it all the more surprising. As for the whole forgiveness issue, she doubted she was one to talk. While she herself had forgiven Hatari because of the way he'd helped them, she didn't suffer as much as Delano and Muroki had because of him.

In her case, she got out alright and unharmed from the, incident... Well, aside from maybe being rather terrified as a result, but other than that fine. Her mate and brother-in-law, however, had been orphaned and lost their unborn cousins as a result of Hatari's involvement. And yet, while Muroki did find it inside him to forgive Hatari, his brother didn't seem like he was making any progress in that direction. "I can't make you forgive him." she said quietly. "The fact that he's changed and that he helped you can't force you either."

"But, that aside, you can't deny that he's different now." She doubted anybody could, really. Heck, even that assassin Sanders had sent at the time of the trial had tried to attack him. "Again, that doesn't mean you should forgive him, but you can't treat him as if he's still the killer you despise so much." Surely her mate would be able to act normally enough around Hatari if he kept that in mind, right? Because she didn't want him to lose his temper in front of the cubs.

Lina was also worried that, if Delano did more than mildly lash out, his target might retaliate in self defense. "Just... Don't attack him, whatever you do..." Letting out a soft sigh, the lioness moved closer to her mate and nuzzled him tenderly. She couldn't even begin to imagine a scenario where Hatari would end up feeling so threatened to the point where he would kill Delano, but her mate getting hurt in case he did something foolish was a possibility she was worried about. Also, what would Akili and his cousins think? About both him and Hatari?