So far, their lives within the Ulili'Mlindaji had been peaceful and calm. It was really just what the pair needed, but Nyeusi knew that Ayana needed this more than he did. They'd had a long discussion on what sorts of shrines they each wanted to set up, and while Nyeusi was torn, Ayana seemed to know exactly what she wanted.

"Judgement," she'd said to him sternly during that talk. She was so set on the matter that Nye chose a much gentler domain just in case she changed her mind.

"Hope," he'd retorted softly, his pretty eyes glimmering softly in the pre-dawn hours.

She'd given him the barest glimpse of a smile but it was enough for him to hold on to. It was enough, the first hint of a smile that he'd been privy to since Vena's abduction. It was an unspoken promise between the two leopards but only because Aya seemed adamant that Vena was still alive. She'd been kidnapped, not murdered, and there would come a day that they would be reunited. Nyeusi had tried only once to bring up Vena's death, and he'd been heartily thumped across the head for his efforts.

No. Aya refused to believe that Vena was dead. Vena was alive and biding her time before an imminent escape.

They'd had their stones carved, Aya utterly meticulous about what symbols she wanted on the stone. Nye was less demanding but just as determined to have his stone 'just-so'.

They made friends. They ate together. They slept near one another. If their pridemembers looked at them as mated, they did not make such assumptions clear. No, Nyeusi did not know how Aya felt about him -- sometimes she seemed content to let him near, while other times she pushed him away quite boldly. Their relationship was a push-pull, a give-take, awkwardly dependant and Nye was utterly in love with the green female. He was just...unsure on how to proceed.

This morning Nyeusi would make it a little more obvious to the female.

He'd risen with the sun, eyes bright and full of purpose. He was going to present Aya with an enormous bouquet of flowers that he'd picked himself, along with some pretty stones and a few feathers he found resting near his shrine. They were white flowers, perfectly immaculate, while the stones were black as night streaked with white. They matched, Nye thought to himself, just as he and Aya did.

He was on his way back to the pride, his mouth stuffed full of flowers, and approached their sleeping area. Aya was nowhere to be seen, and so instinctively Nye went to her shrine. It was there that he found her, hunched over her carved stone. Her shoulders shook as if she wept, and Nye did not know if he should approach her. It wasn't until she lifted her face to the early-morning sky that he was struck by her beauty. His paws carried him forward as if driven by some unknown source of locomotion, and he paused quietly at her side.

Aya turned to look at him, her eyes wet with unshed tears. She tried valiantly to smile, but the shape of it faltered until she gave up on the farcical expression. She was hurting, and he was powerless to help her. Her gaze went to the flowers that he clutched in his mouth, to the stones and feathers he'd already placed near her shrine. She watched him place the flowers at her feet before she lifted a paw to gently brush against his ear.

"I know you are hurting," he said softly, his voice husky and emotion-filled. "We will get through this together, Ayana. Do not let Vena's sacrifice be in vain. Do you think, do you really think, that she would want you to live your life so unhappy, so full of grief and sadness?" They both knew the answer to that, but Aya gave voice to their thoughts.

"No," the green leopardess replied slowly. "No, she would not want to see me like this."

Nye nodded. He was glad that she understood. He was glad that she had said it so that he did not have to.

"I have been slow in being honest with you about how I feel about you," Nye said quietly, nudging closer to the female that had consumed his thoughts, his every waking moment and his dreams. "In fact, it wasn't until I met Vena that I realized how much you had come to mean to me." He was nervous, that much was obvious from the way he spoke. His words were hesitant, his tone unsure, but these were words that he needed to speak, he realized that.

"I love you," he confessed, his brilliant gaze upon her own mismatched one. "You are everything I have ever searched for in this life, and you are everything I could ever want for the rest of my life. You have filled my sleeping hours, and you have consumed my waking hours." He looked bashful now, ears swiveling to rest flat against his skull. He could keep talking, he could, but to what end? What would it accomplish?

Those questions went unasked, but Nye's mind was put at ease when Ayana simply nuzzled into his chest and let out a soft purr. It was as if she'd been waiting for him to confess his feelings for her, and suddenly it felt like everything on the planet just shifted into a sense of perfection. All the wrongs were set right. Nyeusi was convinced that this was what love felt like.

Ayana knew that he loved her. "I love you too," she whispered against the dark fur of his shoulder, lifting a paw to trace one of the green spots that decorated the pelt. They'd been through so much together, had learned so much from one another and from Vena, and it seemed only right that this male was the one she was destined to spend the rest of her life with.

It was perfection. Nothing more, nothing less.

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