Welcome to Gaia! ::

“Hmm,” hummed the large male thoughtfully, “I hadn’t considered that possibility. Do you use that much less?” he questioned, his tone oddly even in spite of the new thought. Spite. That hit the nail on the head. And he was glad to see that she knew it too. The real reason he had eaten those leaves was because she had instructed him not to. Nothing bad seemed to be happening. The pain in his battered body was starting to recede, just as she said it would.

Though his tummy was starting to hurt.

“Leopards are useless animals who probably only listen to you because they don’t know any better. Foolish things that they are. And, for your information, all lions are –not- like me. I’m one-of-a-kind, baby.” Damn proud of it, too.

He grinned darkly at her, nothing about the expression offering a sense of friendship. It was more the kind of thing a murderer gave their victim before pulling out their heart or something. “Anyway, I don’t know what you’re getting so bent out of shape about. They were just leaves. How much damage could they do? Nothing more than a stomach ache, it seems.”

The male laughed at her comment. “Don’t be absurd,” he said, “I do think about what I say before I say it. You think these remarks just roll off the tongue? Yes, I talk like this to everyone. You’re getting no special treatment here and I’ve managed to handle myself just fine with the way I am, thank you.” Of course, his words were EXACTLY why he was beaten up. But… she didn’t need to know that minor detail. His tail flicked against the ground as he watched her, his amusement growing proportionally to her frustration.

It was like a drug to him.

“Raised by leopards?” grunted the large animal, “well! That explains a hell of a lot then! Here I was thinking you were just an idiot by nature, when it turns out you were trained by the best.” He watched her carefully, wondering just how mean he could be to her before she tried to attack him or abandoned him to his fate. It had become almost a game to him now, though as it progressed he knew in the back of his mind that he would ultimately end up the loser.

As was often the case.

He rested his head against the ground, finding it a bit heavy to support now. The pain in his body had gone, though he found function had decreased a bit with it; his limbs were getting more difficult to feel. A strange sensation indeed. Something else to hide from the female.

Keeping his head down, the brute continues to watch his strange companion, a smug, albeit tired expression over his deep gray muzzle. He could almost see the anger radiating off her frame. The flames of rage whipping almost musically about her small, black body. A fantastic sight.

And so delicious.

For a moment he thought he had finally succeeded in making her snap. Like she had reached her quota for sarcasm and was now going to leave him alone like he felt he had wanted all along. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed as he watched her stand up. She had almost seemed a worthy foe. Not in her retorts, of course, (who could compare to the awesomeness of his wit?) but in her ability to brush his comments aside. No one had lasted so long while he was being such an a** to them. So why did he feel like she was giving up too soon? She had survived an impressive amount of time with him, yet he felt he wanted more.

Perhaps it was just because she was really fun to tease.

Thoughts having distracted him of her exit, Jeraha glanced around; he chuckled to himself as he spotted her in a tree not too far away. So she had decided not to leave after all. That bizarre devotion to helping someone in need, even a disgruntled someone, baffled him utterly. What did she have to gain from it? He certainly wasn’t going to repay her.

After a little while, the large animal released a massive groan from the floor, a small dust cloud picking up in front of his nose. The more time that passed, the more he felt like crap. Maybe eating those leaves hadn’t been the greatest of moves in retrospect. His stomach was churning, pain shooting through at random intervals. It was like eating too much and nothing at all had mingled together to cause him discomfort. What made it worse was the fact that he could barely feel his legs and was quite certain he didn’t’ have the strength to stand.

Jeraha took a leisurely moment before opening his eyes, though he had heard her coming a few seconds prior to the reaction. He knew it was her, so why hurry? Blinking, he needed a moment before what was now sitting in front of him clicked in his mind. She had brought him water. Again with the insistence on helping him despite how mean he was being to her. Why was she acting in such a way?

No.

He knew why. Despite his every protest, he knew why she would do it. Unfortunately, the ebony-maned male was the same. Deep inside his chest burned a hero complex. A thought he had processed many times before, yet it continued to bite him in the a**. There was no fighting the impulse to help some one, as much as he would love to.

In a moment of weakness, the male didn’t respond with his usual spite. Not feeling well seemed to have softened him, if only for a little while. “Am I to drink that?” he asked, the gruffness of his tone there even if the lick of wit had faded, “… thank you. Though this is your fault to begin with.”

Alright. So he hadn’t COMPLETELY softened.

Realizing she couldn’t actually respond to his attitude, the large male moved his head forward, drinking the water so she could release the leaf from between her teeth. It didn’t take long to do- there wasn’t much there and he had a fairly massive tongue to lap with. Even though it hadn’t been a lot, it was comforting. The cool liquid moving down his throat helped ease the pain in his stomach as it made its way down. Brief, but effective in the moment.

Sighing, he lowered his head again, eyes shifting up to keep his gaze on the female. Now came the tricky part. The part he never usually had to deal with because mostly everyone else would have already left him to his own devices by this time.

Apologizing.

“I suppose I should be grateful,” he started faintly, eyes shifting suddenly away from the female, “if not for your help I suppose I would still be in pain. Feeling next to nothing is… better?” He wasn’t doing well; he could taste the awkwardness.

Ears jumping forward at her snort, the male felt his hairs bristle even with the numbness in his body; rage quick to build. He was ready to go right back to being a jerk and forget all about trying to apologize to her. But, luckily, she showed that she wasn’t rejecting his attempt, which made him relax again.

“I still don’t see why,” he lied after her remark, “were I in your paws I would have left a long time ago. You must have a strong kindness in you to linger around where you’re not appreciated. That, or you’re just of a very stubborn breed.” His words weren’t coming out as compliments, but nor were they insults.

Jeraha’s ears were not as sharp as Chikala’s. He didn’t hear what had her tense- but he could see it in her expression. “What?” he grunted, not sure if it was him she was frowning at or not.

“That’s a mouthful. I’m Jeraha-ausi,” the male responded, “Jeraha.” Strange. It seemed late in the game for introductions. All that sarcasm had made him forget that she hadn’t even learned his name. “Now why do you look so tense? Do you hear something? Or are you starting to regret this whole situation?”

“I didn’t know you were a name specialist,” said Jeraha in return, “I suppose your name suits you as well. Difficult.” He smiled at that, though there was a distinct lack of malice in the twisting of his lips this time around. Like he had simply amused himself.

The smile fell, though, as he listened to her response. He hadn’t heard anything, though he did recall her mentioning that her ears were better than most. Or maybe he had dreamed that. Either way, she seemed onto something he knew absolutely nothing about. That bothered him.

Slowly, with a struggle, he made an attempt to stand, his limbs feeling a little less numb now. They buckled under his weight, supporting him for the moment. Raising his head, he looked around, just to make sure it was all in her head and there really wasn’t some kind of threat waiting in the grass. “Hm. Better to be sure,” he muttered, “those lions I pissed off might still be looking around for me.”

“Well, your nickname is easier to say,” he replied after a moment, “and it’s kind of alright. At least you have that.”

At her protests he did nothing, looking around and not bothering to lie himself back down. With how much effort it took to get up, he was going to stay on his feet as long as possible. No doubt about it.

Although he hadn’t forgotten the last time he had ignored an order from her.

“Of course they lived near here,” Jeraha grunted, “do you think I traveled miles on miles in this state? Don’t going back to being an idiot, I was just starting to tolerate you,” he warned watching her for a moment before carefully reclining onto his back legs. Then he took a moment to look himself over. There was blood all over him, caked to his body since he hadn’t had a chance to clean any of it off. Though he was glad to see nothing was still bleeding. No fresh puddles under his body.

That was a good sign. Perhaps some of the wounds hadn’t been as deep as he imagined, though they certainly looked gruesome.

He watched her sit near, feeling awkward. Astounding though it might sound, Jeraha wasn’t great around other lions. Or any animal, really. He just didn’t know how to act when he wasn’t trying to push someone out of his life. Made everything really confusing. “Anyway, if there’s nothing to worry about then forget about it. No point dwelling on things. I have a question for you. Why were you raised by leopards?” Jeraha didn’t mind being blunt about things. Asking questions others might find too personal was entertaining.