They had only been strangers the evening before. So why was it they couldn't leave the other's side? Perhaps they both knew the other had seen them in a moment of weakness. A mutually-assured destruction, so to speak. Whatever the reason, they seemed to stick around. Not joined at the hip like lovers, but like a pair of casual friends.

"Tell me about your family," Chinara had asked calmly over the shared breakfast of hare. Bakari nearly choked. He looked up guiltily.
"How could you tel-"
"If some other lioness hadn't caught you by now, something must be wrong with the world," the female laughed. It was a sound Bakari hadn't heard in a dog's age. Still, he acquiesced.
"Well, my mate and I met when we were cubs, actually. I grew up in a pretty great family, I've got to admit." Bakari paused to reflexively stroke the scar over his eye as he continued.
"I was the middle child. My brother was kidnapped by the Firekin, and my sister was… she stayed strong. Everyone in my family did." He dropped his paw, letting it hit the dirt lamely. Chinara was transfixed now. Bakari continued on.
"I guess I could never really claim back what had been taken that day. But then he came back, and I thought, 'Maybe now I can get on with my life'. But it seemed more like-"
"Like your life went on without you," Chinara spoke over him. Bakari looked over, wide-eyed, but the lioness was staring into space. She glanced up, a sad smile portrayed on her older face.
"I had a son."

Now it was Bakari's turn to play the audience as Chinara recalled the story of a teenaged love and her spurred heart. Her fatherless son, the illness, his departure. For a moment, her eyes lit up as she told the male about her son's adventures and thirst for knowledge. Bakari couldn't help but smile and chime in.
"If he had ever met my daughters…" he said knowingly.
"Daughters? How many?"
"Four." He ducked his head down, a light blush crossing his cheeks. Chinara laughed, before Bakari joined in. To a stranger, it must have looked as though they were old friends.

As the laughter died down, Chinara let out a deep sigh, contented. She looked at Bakari, holding her gaze for a good while. The shaggy male couldn't help but fidget a bit under her emerald-green stare.
"What is it?" he asked after a few moments.
"The scar."
"Oh. Uh. That."
Bakari instinctively covered it up with a paw, but the female pulled it down. Rather than say anything more, she simply lay across from him, tail swishing patiently. The golden male had no choice but to again acquiesce.
"My sister had a mate, and I… look, you really don't want to hea-"
"Now come on… I'm not going to mock you for it. Not after last night."
A brief silence passed quietly, save for a few birds chirping in a nearby acacia tree.

"He had come to try and meet me, and things got out of control. I wasn't… wasn't really all 'there', if you get what I mean." A pained expression told more than the story did. Trying to get rid of the growing lump in his throat, he swallowed a few times and continued.
"So when I found out he and my sister were going to have cubs, I just… couldn't…!" His old eyes stung with tears. He couldn't believe he was about to cry again. Hadn't he done that already? And in front of a lady, no less. He covered his eyes with a paw, teeth clenched.
"I loved them all so much," he finally choked out, his body shaking violently. He couldn't see it, but he felt Chinara's paw resting near his. "I never got the chance to tell them that."

The tears flowed freely now, the streaks matching his brown teary markings. The blue-eyed male ducked his head down, but pressed on speaking. Even though his voice was wavering and his mouth contorted.
"I just want them to come back so I can tell them," he gasped, exasperated. His face looked worn and tired; he could've given up then and there. "But they're gone. Everyone's gone. I couldn't be like them. I couldn't catch up to them."
Silence followed the tearful outburst like a funeral procession. At first, Bakari thought he'd finally frightened off Chinara. He probably would've done the same. But no sooner did he drop his paw from his face than he felt a warm, soft feeling over his left eye. The lioness had leant forward and pressed her muzzle against the scar, the way a mother would kiss her child's scrape all better. And the way Bakari looked at the moment, it wasn't too far off.

"But you are like them," she murmured gently as she pulled back. "You're a living testament. All the love they gave you got you to where you are now, didn't it?"
Bakari turned away, but Chinara moved to glance at him.
"Look at me. My family sent me here to keep me safe. They loved me so much they were willing to die if it meant never seeing me again. You think I don't think of them every day? How much I wanted to thank them? Tell them I love them?" Slowly, their gazes met, and Bakari lifted his head.
"You… you're an…?"
"Don't you see?"
The auburn lioness' face looked pleadingly to the golden male. The realization made him suddenly feel ashamed.
"Y… you're right… I was being selfish."
"No!" exclaimed Chinara, laying a paw on top of his arm, stroking it softly. "No, it's good to feel this way. Everyone wishes they could have a son like you, believe me." There was something in her voice as she said this. Something that Bakari couldn't put his paw on.

They stayed like that for what felt like hours, until the sudden clap of thunder startled them. Looking to the distance, Chinara saw the massive deep blue clouds rolling in steadily.
"Do you have a den nearby?" asked Bakari, unsure.
The female nearly said "yes", but she bit her tongue. There was nothing left for her in that den.
"No, but we'll find one."

WC: 1048