[PRIVATE: DGFone & Thewhistlerify]

[DGFone]

Delano visibly relaxed after what Umeme said. "Yeah, we should be alright," he said, "we'll be fine." They continued walking in silence, enjoying each other's company. Delano wasn't quite eager to get back, but the others certainly were, and before he felt ready, they were in sight of the den. Delano stopped walking, feeling nervous. "Should... should we just go there? I uh..." he smiled sheepishly at Lina.

Kasi looked at the den, and got an idea. "Hey, I can go and get them," he suggested, "it will give you guys some time to get ready for the big announcement."

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki nodded at Kasi's suggested, "Good idea." while he was still sure that Delano and Lina had nothing to worry about, perhaps a few more moments to get ready will be good for them. "You can call your parents too if you want." after all, Delano was their nephew. In addition, Muroki knew that Kasi's parents were very good friends with Lina's parents, so there was quite a high chance that Kasi will find them together. While Kasi went inside, Muroki and Umeme stayed outside with Delano and Lina.

[DGFone]

Kasi nodded and ran down to the den, leaving the other behind to get ready. When he went inside the den, sure enough, he found his parents along with those of Lina and Umeme. "Oh, hey, we're back," he announced, grinning hard. "The others are outside. They have... something to tell you guys."

Moto was busy talking with Laini and Dakari when Kasi walked in. "There you are. I expected one of you to be in the den already," he commented. When Delano was recovering, the den was usually holding at least one of them inside. "So what do they want to show us?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Kasi just grinned even more and ushered them outside.

While Kasi was busy fetching the parents, Delano stood with Lina, wondering what to do. "So... do you think I look good enough?" he asked Lina, suddenly finding the urge to actually clean himself for the first time in his life. Having spent a lot of time in the water, he was already much cleaner than before, but now he wanted to remove the dust that had gotten on him during their walk back.

Umeme grinned. "You look fine. Muroki didn't have to do anything special when we got together. Just be yourself." She found it funny how Delano was now trying to clean himself, and licked Muroki in turn. "You look great as well. You don't have to do anything special for me. It won't be you, and therefore I won't like it."

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki looked at her with a rather blank expression. "I wasn't planning on doing anything to the way I looked..." back before he proposed to her or before they told her parents he didn't really care whether he was perfectly clean or not. The only thing that worried him was how would Umeme react to his proposal and how would her parents react once they told them. Lina only chuckled at Delano's excitement.

Fadhili was not taking part in the conversation and was dozing next to her mate when Kasi came in. She was woken up by Moto while Kasi nudged his own parents outside. She asked him what was the matter and he told her that the others had something to tell them. Her curiosity immediately kicked in and she followed her mate outside, finding her daughters, Delano and Muroki who were waiting for them.

[DGFone]

When Kasi lead the adults up to them, Umeme and Muroki went over to greet them, leaving Delano alone with Lina. "Mom! Dad! We have something to tell you!" Umeme took her spot in between her parents and Muroki, and now the entire group was looking at Delano and Lina. "So... Which one of you wants to spill the beans?"

Delano stared at the group in front of him, suddenly feeling very nervous. He took a deep breath, deciding to be the one to speak up first. "Well... I... I-" he struggled to form anything meaningful, feeling his nervousness turn to shame as he failed to even say one coherent sentence. But when he looked at the smirk Kasi was giving him, the rage he felt also had another side effect: he was going to prove Kasi that he can do this, and with this newly found resolve, he stood up taller and said it: "I asked Lina to be my mate." He waited a little bit, uncertain what else to say. "...And she accepted," he added after a little bit.

[TheWhistlerify]

The adults sat down next to Kasi, Umeme and Muroki while they waited to hear what Delano and Lina wanted to tell them. When Delano finally told them Fadhili was the first to respond. She ran over to the two and tightly hugged them both, "Oh! I simply knew this was going to happen!" she exclaimed in delight, not noticing that she was maybe suffocating the two a bit. "I was starting to fear how long it was going to take until it happened!" she finally released them. "I'm so happy for you two!"

Muroki looked at Umeme and whispered, "Now I know why your sister looked so nervous..."

[DGFone]

Delano tried to say something, but he found himself not even in much of a condition to breath from the tight hug that Fadhili had him and Lina in. After what felt like to long, he was finally let free, and swayed in place, leaning on Lina as he tried to regain his breath. He smiled back at Fadhili, not feeling mad at her suffocating hug, though. "Yeah, so I finally asked her today," he whispered, hoping to regain his voice soon enough, "I was... I was just worried that you might object or something." he then smiled at her and Moto. "but seeing as you're not... thank you." He then looked at Lina and gave her a hug as well, but this time making sure not to suffocate her. "I promise to make your life a happy one," he told her, "one for both of us."

Umeme chuckled at Muroki's joke. "Yeah, at least with us, mom didn't nearly kill us..." She licked him lovingly. "So that you for not waiting so long that mom started getting worried about us."

[TheWhistlerify]

Lina, who was quite familiar with her mother's way of nearly suffocating lions when she hugged them, took in a deep breath as soon as her mother released her and Delano just in case there would suddenly be a round 2. There was no doubt that her mother was approving of the whole thing, but her father still hasn't said a thing. While it might also be a sign of approval, there was also the chance that it was not. "Dad?" she asked, wanting to get that worry out of the way and to not have that doubt.

Muroki chuckled, "Well that's because I already asked you by the time they got here remembered?" One of the main reasons he was worried about their reaction was because when they last visited their daughters he was not even part of the pride yet, and back then he hoped that coming back to suddenly find out that their daughter had a mate wouldn't worry them.

[DGFone]

Moto beamed at Lina. "I'm glad for you," he said, "for both of you." Much lie Fadhili before him, he reached out and swept up Lina and Delano in a hug, although not a tight constricting one as his mate had. "We all knew that this day would soon arrive," he told them, before smiling at Lina, "but your mother is right: we were more worried about when it would come and not if it will." He gave the two of them a pat on the back before separating himself. "Congratulations!"

Umeme smiled back at Muroki. "Yeah, I remember that. But you had nothing to worry about. I trust you, and they trust me and Lina. If they didn't, they would never have left us in the first place." She looked at her parents and then back at Muroki. "Although I think that between you and Delano, I don't think that they're going to leave again any time soon."

[TheWhistlerify]

Muroki smiled. He didn't have any sort of a problem with Umeme's parents staying. "Then I guess they really missed the two of you when they were gone." or perhaps they were tired of traveling all the time. He didn't know for sure, but it didn't really matter. "Maybe just dropping to visit every once in a while wasn't enough for them at some point."

Even though Lina was quite certain that her father would approve, her relief was still almost palpable when she finally heard him say it. "Thanks," she said, addressing both of her parents, "it really means a lot to me that you approve..."