A Change of Plans [PRIVATE: AC & The Whistlerify]

[AustralianChaos]

Nala put on an overly-thoughtful look for Simba's amusement as se conisdered his words. "Sneaky...sadistic, even...Tanga would go absolutely nuts!" She nudged Simba appreciately on the shoulder. "I like it!"

Then Nala turned back, looking at the creamy lioness Tanga was sleeping next to. "But what about Marini...what do we do to her? Do we tease her as well, or just Tanga, since I don't think Marini knows about Tanga's visits." She got another sadistic smirk at the thought of Tanga trying to explain his actions if Marini suddenly woke up to find him on her shoulder.

[TheWhistlerify]

Simba just smiled and sat down, "I, am a genius." he said the way he did about a month ago.
He then looked at Marini and considered what Nala had said. "It really seems like Marini has no idea about this." he said trying to think of something else. "We can either do what I just suggested, or we can try waking Rini up. She'll either ask Tanga what's going on while he goes completely insane, or she might turn out to know about this."

[AustralianChaos]

Nala let his genius comment slide this time...but not without making him earn it. Grinning at him, she backed off so that, if Tanga and Marini woke up, she would be out of sight. "Well, then...since you're such a genius, you can pick which plan to use...and if you decide to wake Marini up, you can be the one to do it!"

She took a few steps further back, knowing Simba would most likely second-guess his genius plans now that she had put the spotlight on him. Picking on Zazu was fun...but doing it, alone, to two of his closest friends? Nala had always accompanied him on some of his most devious pranks...doing it alone would be a little more nerve-wracking, Nala guessed. She smirked at him once more as she sat back and waited to see what he would do. "Well, what are you waiting for, genius?"

[TheWhistlerify]

SImba was exoecting Nala to stay in case they decided to wake Marini up instead, but he got a little nervous when he was told to do it by himself. "I think Tanga waking up to find us here will be funnier." Simba said, "But it can take him ages to wake up." SImba said, "We need to wake him up without him knowing for sure that we were here watching. he then picked a small stone and gently threw it at Tanga, not wanting it to either hurt him or make it obvious that it was thrown at him. He then walked over to Nala who was out of sight and waited

[AustralianChaos]

Nala placed both paws over her mouth to stop a burst of giggles as Simba threw a pebble at Tanga, managing to fight it down and wait to see what Tanga would do, grinning conspiritorially at Simba as the two of them waited.

This is going to be so much fun! she thought, managing to pull her grin away and adopt a calm, neutral expression as she heard Tanga stirring inside Marini's cave.

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Tanga was pulled out wakefullness. He had been having an interesting dream when someone...or something...had poked him in the head. As he opened his eyes, he rubbed the spot where he had been poked in the dream, confused as to how the feeling was moving into his waking self as well.

Passing it off as simple sleepiness, he carefully removed his chin from Marini's shoulder, making sure to not disturb her, before silently stretching and pulling himself to his feet, glad the pale lioness had out-slept him, as she always did.

Tanga knew he was taking a big risk by sleeping so close to Marini...if she ever woke up before him, he'd never be able to explain himelf...but he found her presence so comforting that he could not help himself. On top of that, even if he would only admit it to himself, he knew he had a crush on Marini for the past couple of weeks. They had been good friends pretty much all their lives, but both of them were early adolescents now, and Tanga was strting to see Marini in a new light.

Deciding to go for his usual morning walk around Pride Rock to wake himself up, Tanga ran a paw through the miniscule tuft on top of his head, deliberately fluffing it out...he was quite proud of the fact that he had beaten Simba in beginning to grow out his mane.

But when he left Marini's den, he froze as he noticed Nala and Simba sitting outside, seemingly waiting for Marini. Oh, Kings Above, did they see me with Marini? he thought, his insides panicking even as he fought to keep his voice calm as he spoke. "Err...hi Simba, Nala...what are you doing here?" he managed to greet without sounding too nervous. All he could do was watch them, and pray they had not entered Marini's den yet.

[TheWhistlerify]

Simba waited impatiently for Tanga to come out, this was going to be cracking. As Tanga came out he seemed completely calm untill he noticed Nala and Simba sitting outside. "We were waiting for Marini to wake up." Simba said, thinking on how to drop a hint while not letting him know that they saw. "Funny thing seeing you here. Did you wake her up already?"

[AustralianChaos]

Tanga fought to keep his expression calm as Simba spoke, but he could not stop the initial stammer in his voice. "N-no...no, she's still asleep. I decided to stay in her den," he said, deciding to tell them the partial truth, leaving out the part about sleeping right next to her deliberately. "She doesn't seem to mind if we share a den on the odd occasion...and I find it helps me sleep better, anyway."

He sighed, rubbing a paw across the back of his neck nervously as he tried to change the subject. "I haven't been sleeping very well since Scar forced us to leave the main den." This was another half truth. Tanga had struggled to get a decent night's sleep since he and Marini had been forced into the private dens. But while some of it was to do with the lonely, cold nature of the private dens...part of it was also to do with his new-found crush on Marini, which was why he slept by her side whenever he thought he could risk it. He seemed to sleep better with her warmth there.

[TheWhistlerify]

"I see." Simba said, his tone not really sounding as if he believed what Tanga. "Should we wake her up as well?" he asked looking at Nala, trying to see what was she thinking about what Tanga said

[AustralianChaos]

Nala held a straight face...although she had absolutely no idea how she was managing to. Her ribs felt like they were about to burst from all the laughter she was holding back. She knew that if Simba didn't stop his teasing soon she was going to have to leave for a few moments to compose herself.

But when Simba posed the question of waking Marini up, she recalculated the time she would need from a few moments to a few minutes, as she fought harder to remain calm. She was probably going to need to lie down after this was over, her ribs were really starting to hurt.

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"No!" Tanga said to Simba's question, a little more loudly than he had intended. He didn't know why he was panicking, since the two of them seemed clueless as to just how close to Marini he had been sleeping. He quickly composed himself. "No, let her sleep, she's fine."

Once again, he thought the best course of action would be to change the subject before Simba and Nala got too suspicious, and started asking too many awkward questions. "I was just going to go for my morning walk...either of you want to come?"

[TheWhistlerify]

Simba tried not to grin as Tanga said no to his question. It was obvious that Tanga was worried if htey saw him and Marini or now. "I'd love to come with you." Simba said when another idea came to his mind. "Nala, do you want to come or do you want to stay with Rini untill she wakes up?" he asked with a slight change in his tone, "You can have... a girl talk, something like that." he said hoping Nala would understand what he meant