[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Delano was stunned into silence when Lina rushed over and hugged him. He didn't expect it so much that he forgot to hug her back, and instead just sat there, blinking away. Finally, he found his senses enough to say something. "Yeah, we err... it wasn't a problem." He stammered. "We wanted to return, and so... and so we did." He closed his mouth feeling foolish.

Kasi felt like one can drown in the awkwardness, so he decided to brake it up. "Well, it's late," he said, "So I think that it will be best if we go to bed now. There will be a lot of catching up in the morning, I think." He took the initiative and lay down, closing his eyes. Hopefully things will settle down overnight. It wasn't that he wasn't glad that his cousins came back, as much as that it was so surreal that he was still able to think clearly, as though they had not come back.

Delano looked uncertainly at Kasi. His cousin was still somehow fine, but he didn't feel like it. So he settled down at a far end of the den, away from the others. He didn't want to interfere with the others.

Knowing that Kasi was right, Umeme went back to where she was sleeping moments before. She lay down again, but stared at Muroki. She grinned slightly, knowing that he was back. She was already planning to spend the next day with him, finding out why he was gone. Anything to spend some time with him.

She quickly looked away when Muroki panned his eyes in her direction. She didn't want him to know that she was looking at him. She still felt ridiculous for hugging him like that, She should have had more control over herself. But at the same time, she was somewhat glad that she did.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki wasn't really paying attention to what Delano was doing and lay down beside where he usually slept before they left, or at least where he had slept as far as he was able to remember. He couldn't help but look at Umeme every once in a while of course. Whenever he was looking at her and she looked in his direction, he looked away so she wouldn't notice. Unknown to him she was practically doing the exact same thing. It carried on like that for almost a minute until Muroki put his head down and closed his eyes, still needing that sleep he mentioned to Delano before they came back. Maybe tomorrow he could finally listen to his brother's advice and ask Umeme to hang out or something so he could tell her how he was feeling.

Lina went ahead and lay down next to Umeme, looking at Delano in the corner of her eye as she did. Him being gone for quite a long time with neither him or his brother telling them that they were leaving only made her growing emotions for him harder to resist now that he was back. She wanted to just lay down beside him and rest her head in his mane, but obviously that would be a little odd since there was no way he wouldn't notice such a thing. Despite the urges, she remained next to Umeme and closed her eyes, going to sleep as well.

[DGFone]

Delano didn't realize that he fell asleep until he woke up the next morning at sunrise. He blinked his remaining sleepiness and saw that the others were still asleep, although Muroki was also looked like he was about to wake up. Only figured that waking up early was one aspect of the training that was most noticeable. It was also what Delano wouldn't mind forgetting.

He looked over at Muroki and saw that his brother was already opening his eyes. When Muroki finally looked at him, Delano motioned for him to follow as he got up and walked outside of the den. He gave a glance back inside, but it looked like no one else would wake up any time soon.

Stepping out into the morning sunlight, Delano blinked at the bright light. When he sensed that Muroki walked up to his side, Delano spoke up without looking. "So what do you think will happen now?" He asked. Already, Delano started to feel lost, not having anyone telling him what to do. "Things are certainly different now." He sighed and finally looked at his brother.

"I meant what I said about you and Umeme," Delano said. It was something that he was reminded of when he saw her again, and how she hugged Muroki. "I think you should talk to her. And the sooner the better." He looked at the den's entrance. "You finally have that chance now."

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki sighed with a shrug, "I don't know. Just living I guess." the idea was so simple that Muroki felt stupid for not thinking about doing it before. Even though they weren't there for a long time, Muroki was already feeling that being part of a pride was better for him, which also made him feel a little annoyed for not looking for a pride for both them and their parents to live at back at the time. Not only would it have been a lot more pleasant to be with their cousin, uncle and aunt as a bigger family, but also their parents might have not died if they all weren't living in the middle of no where.

He couldn't stop his face from turning slightly red when his brother mentioned Umeme and reminded him that he should talk to her, and the blush was quite noticeable through his pale fur. "You're right, I should talk to her." he said with a slight smile, looking back towards the den and remembering the way she hugged him last night and how he wished that moment could have lasted even a little longer. "I will talk to her when she wakes up." by saying that he was basically meant that he would try to talk to her, but he knew that he couldn't keep his emotions to himself for much longer, which made Delano even more than right. The sooner he talked to her the better.

[DGFone]

Delano grinned slightly at his brother. Muroki looked already nervous, which means that he will have a hard time actually talking to Umeme. "Just be yourself," Delano suggested, "If you try to impress her, I don't know, but I know that it won't end well." He didn't really know what Muroki should say, and so his advice sounded uncertain, but Delano still wanted Muroki to do well. "It'll be fine if you're nervous, and don't try to hide it too much. If you do, well, you never were good at hiding when you are nervous."

Delano looked at the sunrise, and decided to also say what he sometimes told himself. "Don't think too much. If you do, it will do more harm than good." He fell silent, not knowing what else to say. As much as he wanted to help Muroki prepare for talking to Umeme, the only thing he knew how to do well was tease his brother about it. Well, why not? "If you do mess up, I'll remind you about it every day for the rest of your life," Delano said, smiling.

It took Umeme a while to wake up, but finally she opened her eyes. Looking slowly around, she panned over the den, and saw Lina and Kasi still asleep. She was about to try and get some more sleep when it hit her. Where where Delano and Muroki? Umeme quickly got up and went over to Lina. "Lina, wake up!" She urged, shaking her friend rather violently, "They're gone! Delano and Muroki are gone!"

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki chuckled, "Gee thanks." despite the fact that Delano was teasing him about it all the time, Muroki never wanted his brother out of his life. Also, the threatening of upcoming teasing gave him motivation to not mess it all up with Umeme, so one could say that Delano actually was helping him a little. "I'll just be myself, you're right." the worst thing that could happen was Umeme laughing at him and making him feel like a fool, but he was feeling nervous around her anyway so it wouldn't really matter, he didn't have much to lose here.

Lina was enjoying a rather peaceful sleep compared to the nights were Delano and Muroki were away. When Umeme started shaking her and yelling into her ears she jumped, looking around. The sudden panic which caused her to wake up from a restful sleep got her also to panic, only for that panic to fade away when she looked outside and noticed that the two brothers were sitting some distance away from the den, talking to each other. With a sigh, she turned around and looked at her friend, "Um... They're outside..." she said, now realizing that Umeme didn't bother checking outside of the den.

[DGFone]

Delano grinned at Muroki. But before he could say anything else, he heard a commotion coming from the den. Turing his head, Delano figured that Umeme and Lina woke up. But why the noise? "Well, they're up. Now's your chance." Delano said. And just for fun, he added, "Oh, and Muroki, remember: I'll be watching you." He smiled evilly to add to the effect, but couldn't tell how successful he was at it.

Kasi was awoken by the commotion inside the den. Groaning, he opened his eyes to see if Delano and Muroki were indeed gone. He spotted his cousins sitting outside the den. "Come on, Umeme! Can't you see that they're outside? Really, can't you let us sleep instead of panicking like that?" Groaning again, he rolled over and yawned loudly. Now that he was awake, there was no point in falling asleep again.

Umeme looked outside the den and spotted the brothers. "Oh, sorry..." She said, flattening her ears in embarrassment. She had no idea how she was able to miss the brothers, but she did. And it made her feel ridiculous. "Well, I'm going to talk to them," she said, wanting to leave the den.

Umeme got up and walked out of the den and sat down next to Delano and Muroki. "Uh, hey," she said softly. "How long you've been up here already?" She didn't really know what to say, so she instead opted for the first thing that came to her mind.

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki held back from rolling his eyes, even though he found Delano's last comment a little funny for whatever reason. Just as he was about to say something back to him Umeme came out of the den and sat down next to them. Soon enough he was again holding back a blush and forcing himself not to look like an idiot. "Hey... We've been up for a few minutes now." he hesitated for a moment or two, but then carried on. "Uh, Umeme, would you mind if I talked to you for a moment?" he hoped that Delano would understand the hint and leave them on their own, his nervousness only rising within every second.

[DGFone]

Delano grinned slightly when he got the message. He got up and walked away, but not before muttering "Stay cool," to Muroki. He might really be only good at teasing, but he still wanted his brother to do well and not embarrass himself.

Walking away, Delano sat down a ways off where he can observe Umeme and his brother. He frowned, though, when he spotted Kasi emerging from the den. Delano motioned for his cousin to walk over, and Kasi got the hint, and left Umeme and Muroki alone.

Kasi instead walked over to Delano and sat down. "So, any reason why you are here alone?" he asked.

"Nope," Delano replied, "Muroki just wanted to talk with Umeme. Which is why I had you come over here."

Kasi looked at Muroki and Umeme. "Do you know what they want to talk about?" he asked. Delano shook his head, and Kasi sighed. He could tell that Delano didn't want to talk about it anyways. "So what made you decide to come back?" Kasi asked. He wanted to know why his cousins returned suddenly the day before.

Delano smiled sheepishly. "I finally had some sense knocked into me." He replied."And so I changed my mind."

Next to Muroki, Umeme watched in confusion as Delano walked away, leaving her and Muroki alone together. Even Kasi walked away after leaving the den. "So what do you want to talk to me about?" She asked, not knowing what to expect. At the same time, she was wondering whether or not to admit how she missed Muroki as well. "Wh-Where were you go all this time?"

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki was trying to figure out how he should start when Umeme suddenly asked where he has been the entire time. It was a little confusing that she only asked about him and not about both him and Delano, but he didn't dwell about it too much. He figured he should be honest with her, "Delano and I went to the local police and asked if we could work undercover... We... wanted to track down those who killed our parents... But we thought about it and decided that it was pointless, so we came back... Too bad it took us so long to understand that nothing will bring our parents back."

He hoped Umeme wouldn't take that in a negative way considering that he and Delano have changed their minds and came back. "Beside, I, uh... I also missed you, a lot..." he said, rubbing the back of his head with one of his paws as his cheeks turned red. "Look, Umeme... I don't know how to say this, but uh... I really like you." at this point his face was so red that anyone who didn't know him might think that red was his actual fur color. "I'd really love to, uh... Spend some time with you, and get to know you better..."