[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Delano rubbed his head with a paw, glancing at Lina and feeling somewhat nervous for some reason. "Well, I don't really know Lina, I just feel like... Like I haven't been able to really spend as much time with you as I could have." He thought of what he wanted to say for some time.

"Well, there was about seeing Hatari. I really shouldn't have. It didn't do any good and it killed my mood for the rest of the day. When I could have been outside with you, and yes, even with Akili, I was stuck inside the den sleeping." He chuckled nervously. "I just think that it would have been better to not have gone and have had the whole day with you rather than just part of it."

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina should have figured that Delano was thinking about that. He really had been in a rather dampened mood after going to see the former member of the underworld. "But it was me who asked you to go to him, remember?" she asked with a chuckle. "So you don't need to beat yourself up." Either way, Delano was right in saying that at least they had the whole day to spend now. Yesterday was no longer as important. Smiling, the lioness nuzzled her mate lovingly, placing one of her paws on his own as she did.

[DGFone]

Delano fell quiet when Lina began to nuzzle him, letting out a small purr of approval. He had somehow managed to forget that it was Lina who had asked him to go, but that didn't really make him feel any better about it though. What did make him feel better was how she just knew how to distract him like he was doing now.

"Now that we're here," he started to say, taking Lina's advice and not letting the previous events ruin today for him as well, "the water looks very inviting..." He was already starting to think of ways to get back at her for cheating in their race over to the waterhole.

[TheWhistlerify]

Purring as well as she and her mate nuzzled each other, Lina reopened her eyes when Delano broke the silence, suggesting they took a swim in the waterhole. It was a warm, pleasant day, meaning that the water shouldn't be too cold by that point and that drying off together in the sun later would be equally pleasant. "Yes, the water does look inviting." she said, licking the lion's cheek in agreement. A harmless dip sounded very refreshing indeed.

[DGFone]

Smiling at how Lina licked him, Delano waited for her to make the first move in terms of actually getting up. When she finally did, he followed her closer to the water. When they got to the edge, he grinned at her. "So what are you waiting for? Hop in!" Taking in a deep breath, he jumped as far as he could, making sure to splash as much as possible when he finally hit the water.

Resurfacing, he saw that Lina was still at the shore, and that she had gotten wet because of him. The sight of her shocked face, combined with the drenched fur, caused him to burst out laughing, even though it was what he wanted to happen in the first place. "I told you to jump in!" he teased, "then you wouldn't have gotten wet like this! Now come on! You can't get any wetter!" In preparation, he already began to swim in the opposite direction from her.

[TheWhistlerify]

Of course, Lina had planned to get into the water too which, obviously, meant getting wet. But she'd wanted to enter the water at her own pace, not get her fur completely drenched by having water splashed all over her completely out of the blue. Hearing her mate burst out laughing, the lioness's expression of shock turned into a playful glare. "Oh, you little-" That sly, sly, incredibly handsome devil! She dove into the water as well, immediately swimming in Delano's direction and giving chase. He was going to pay.

[DGFone]

While Delano had expected Lina to try and get her own revenge, he didn't know exactly how she would try to do that. So after she dove in the water after him, he slowed down to allow her to catch up. When she finally caught up to him, he stopped to turn and face her, noticing her playful, but very real glare. "Now come on now, Lina! It wasn't that bad! I mean, it's only -" he let out a yelp that was also interrupted as she forced his head below the water's surface.

Getting back up to much needed air, Delano had to take a few moments to take in some gasps of air. "Lina!" he screamed after his mate, who was already paddling quickly away from him. "I didn't expect you to try and kill me!" He gave chase after her, seeing that she was heading as quickly as she can towards the nearest shore.

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina had to do her best not to splash at her mate when he actually slowed down and turned to face her (so to not scare him off, that is), for simply shoving water into the lion's face was the last thing she had planned to get back at him. I stead of simply interrupting Delano's babbling by splashing water into his mouth, she went even further and shoved his head under the water's surface, holding it there for a few seconds before quickly swimming away while giggling to herself. His surprised yelp sure was amusing, and his screaming shortly afterwards was hilarious. Sticking her tongue out at him, the lioness got out of the water and quickly hid behind a nearby rock. True, pinning him this time won't be easy because he knew where she was, but she was still going to tackle him. It was fun messing around like cubs.

[DGFone]

Unable to reach Lina in time to catch her still in the water, Delano scampered out onto dry ground and shook himself to try and dry up a little after his near-downing (not really) from Lina. Eyeing the rock where his mate hid behind, he took his time walking over there, already expecting a counter attack from her, even though by all counts, she already had her go at him, with dunking his head in the water and all that.

"Come on now, Lina... Be reasonable! I only wanted to get back at you for cheating in the race here." He was hoping that he can get her to come out and then he would have a better chance at getting his own revenge at her attempted matecide. "Besides, didn't you just shove me under? So what if we just call it even and let it rest, eh? Come on now, Lina! Lina..?" She still wasn't coming out of hiding, and Delano was starting to worry that he would actually need to go and try to flush her out of hiding.

[TheWhistlerify]

Hearing Delano try to coax her out of her hiding place like that made Lina giggle and, even though he already knew she was there, she did her best to giggle as quietly as possible just for the sake of, well, nothing, really. For her own amusement, if anything. When her mate fell quiet, Lina poked her head out, sticking her tongue out at the lion and quickly withdrawing. Messing with Delano sure was fun. She was really regretting not having dropped Akili off sooner, but at least they were there now. Once he came close enough, as he must have expected of her, she pounced on him again.