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 Posted: Mon Nov 27, 2006 3:56 pm
She was this little male's mother; it was a given she'd think him beautiful just for that reason alone. But the more she looked at him - thus far, she'd yet to take her eyes off him - the more and more she saw his father in him. She loved Taabu, too stubborn to admit it or not, and this little one looking so much like him made him more beautiful to her. Of course, she also saw her own father in the little curl beneath his eye, but she overlooked that. On her youngest son it looked perfectly fine, just as her father's signature colour did on the two who had come before him.
She couldn't respond to his first statement, not without gushing emotion in her hormonal state, but she could the second. "Hopefully it won't be long," she murmured in reply, taking a deep breath as though to prepare herself for the next round of birth pains - and just in time, too, for they come as if triggered by her words.
She grunted as she was gripped by contractions for the fourth time, though she noted that this time the pain was slightly less - perhaps because there were less cubs in there now? She didn't know, she was just happy - as happy as she could be in pain - that there was a noticeable difference. Gritting her teeth together, she delivered her last cub.
It was remarkably easier than the other three before it, and she breathed a sigh of relief. But as she reached around to once again pull this new bundle of joy - a girl, it turned out to be - she froze, eyes widening. Gods... and she'd thought the son before it had looked like Taabu. Almost gingerly this time she pulled this last - she instinctively knew she was the last - cub to the protection and nourishment of her side. This little girl was smaller, she noted idly. That was why she had been easier to give birth to. But that wasn't really her main concern right now.
Taabu had to know now. How could he not? The odds of her finding a male of cream, toffee and black with similar markings to the real father sitting above her were one in several million, especially since she would have had to have found him within a few days of being with Taabu. That made it one in several more million. Daddy knew, and mummy was afraid of how he'd take it. Did he want cubs? More importantly, did he want cubs from her? She did not know, and the not knowing scared her. Terrified her.
Slowly, she looked up at Taabu, and her eyes were filling with tears again, so that she stared up at him through a haze of watery fear. Stupid hormones. She was waiting for him to say something... but she didn't know if she wanted to hear it or not. She couldn't be sure he'd like to have cubs with her, and her anxiety over this matter made her assume worst-case-scenario, that he'd tell her to leave and that he wanted nothing to do with them. It would kill her if she heard such words from him.
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Posted: Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:40 am
Taabu smiled weakly at her words, anticipating what would come next. His eyes traveled over the form of the young lioness, knowing that she must be near the end of the birth. After all, this was an amazingly large litter for an adolescent, and a pretty large litter for an adult. Average size, he figured, was about three – for an adult, at least, and one or two was all you usually came by with an adolescent, if they even had one at all.
He couldn’t have, under any circumstance, anticipated what was going to happen next, however. As he saw the contractions building up, he edged his body closer for comfort. He knew it was risking claw and teeth, but he didn’t mind it so much if it made her feel better. He had been watching her, concerned, until he saw her reach out and grab the cub – the seemingly last one, considering she had stopped most of her birthing efforts.
His eyes widened, his breath coming a little short. Everything else had been coincidence before. He could contribute most of, if not all, of the cubs traits to Nyunya – but this last one, this last one had hardly any of her at all, save for the bits of white. The little girl was almost the spitting image of her father, despite being tiny like her mother, and it made his heart stop – because he knew the father now.
“You were lying,” he breathed out, watching the squirming cubs with a new wonder and a new light, almost having to stop himself from jumping over her and nuzzling each and every one of those squirming little beauties. He watched them, in awe, before glancing up to her.
That’s why she had been so afraid of telling him – because she had thought he wouldn’t want her, he could see it in her eyes now. He took a deep breath, trying to be serious and keep the smile from his face – even if he couldn’t keep it from his eyes.
“You should have told me,” he whispered to her, leaning to nuzzle that scared expression off of her face, “from the moment I saw this, I wanted nothing more than to be a father to the cubs you would have, do you understand?” He glanced up to her eyes, watching them, holding them, “I want nothing more than to have a family with Nyunya, I love you, and I have for a long time.”
If only all fathers were like Taabu.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:51 am
She saw the realisation dawn in his eyes, felt her stomach tighten in anxious knots (not a particularly comfortable thing to have happen when one has just given birth to an exceptionally large litter, especially when one is a small adolescent), wincing as he said what seemed, to her, like an accusation. Those knots clenched tighter as she floundered for something to say in defence, to explain her reasons to him. They'd been so clear to her before this moment, so justified; now they seemed pathetically inadequate.
She was still scrabbling for the right words when he leaned to nuzzle her, and she froze. A tiny bit of the tension unwound from her shoulders, though her heart continued to canter in her chest. He drew back then and trapped her gaze with his own, so that he inevitably saw them widen incredulously at his words. He loved her? Truly? And he wanted cubs with her? It was too good to be true. If he had been anyone other than Taabu, she would have been suspicious, maybe even openly doubtful. But somehow, she never doubted Taabu's honesty and integrity.
Still, she had to ask, simply because she couldn't think of anything else to say, her mind not quite yet recovered. "Really?" It didn't sound as though she was questioning him; rather, her tone hinted that she just wanted to hear him say it again.
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Posted: Wed Nov 29, 2006 11:13 am
It was a deep breath that filled the tortured lungs of the new adult, and entirely out of habit, he shook his great thick mane. It sent his heavy, raven locks flying in a delicate whirl around his tawny face – accentuating the handsome features, and sadly, the scar that graced them as well. He looked like a rough sort of lion, now, with that battle scar tainting the mask of his face, but his expression all but warded off any thought one might have of being afraid. His eyes were kind, gentle, but stern – he was not a mean lion, not in a physical sense at least, but he was not a pushover either. He was, and always would be, a little too judging, but he was a gentlemen none-the-less. To be afraid of him would be irrational. Though he may have the body of a rogue, with the colors and scars to match, he was nothing but a prince – brave and true to the lions of his pride, the lions that needed him.
It was the same situation that he found himself in as he gazed down at the family that sprung up so suddenly beneath his paws. He was a father, and thus, had more responsibility now than he could have ever imagined. True, he always made his rounds, always looking out for dangers or threats to the vulnerable and young of the pride – but now, the vulnerable and young included his family, and that family meant more to him than anything he could ever have imagined, even if it was only hours old at this point. It was a lot of duty, it was an amazing amount of work, but it was the only thing that he could have ever wanted for his life, now that he thought about it.
This was his, all of this, and no one else’s. For once in his life, he had his own family that he had made. Sure, he had always assumed that one day he would be a father and have a loving mate, but one has to understand that he probably didn’t think it would happen so soon. Even though he was ripe for fatherhood, well, it was all still a bit of a shock. A beautiful, glorious shock.
”I could have never wanted anything more than this,” he said, in reply to her one word question, a question that seemed to have the weight of the world riding on the answer. He knew she questioned this only to hear it again, his words couldn’t have been any clearer than they had the first time.
He stopped, glancing down at the four that huddled against the warmth of their mother’s belly and each other, feeding in an attempt to quell that first pain of hunger. He slowly turned himself, walking around her body, and set himself down beside the beautiful lioness. He huddled closer, hiding the cubs from view and likewise keeping the wind from their tiny little forms.
“I never want anything more than this,” he said, offering her a smile that held all the meaning in the world.
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Posted: Sat Dec 09, 2006 6:57 am
If Taabu thought he looked unappealingly rough, it was a good thing Nyunya didn't. Actually, she found it rather attractive. She'd never claimed to like the clean-cut look in a male. He'd told her the story behind the scar. She knew from that that he wasn't going to run from a fight like a coward. It told her he would fight to keep her safe, and their cubs, if it proved necessary at any time. That was something she needed to know. She was a very small lioness. She accepted that, even if she didn't like it. It meant, though, that she didn't have the necessary muscle to protect her family from assaults, even if she was well-built for her size. The fact that he could was pleasing to her. And besides... it looked sexy, in her opinion.
Taabu would do well, though, not to say anything relating to that to Nyunya, though. Just because she knew them herself and accepted them did not mean she liked to be reminded of her physical flaws.
As her mate settled down on the other side of their cubs, she shifted her body slightly to enable her to rest her head against his leg. It was the only comfortable position she could find that wouldn't prevent her young keeping their access to their first meal. She nuzzled gently at that of him that she could reach, though, and allowed her eyes to close slowly, comforted by his assurances and his presence equally. It was probably one of the few times she'd really relaxed since learning of this pregnancy, after the dread and the fear had settled in, and had seemed like they'd stay with her. But now it was all washed away, never to return so long as Taabu stayed by her side, and for that reason alone she felt a tension more emotional than physical unwind from her.
"There's nothing more I could possibly want, either," she agreed softly, feeling rather tired now that she was letting herself relax against him. It was unsurprising. Birth takes its toll on a body, and hers was only small to begin with. She would like to be inside a safe, cosy den about now, but she wasn't really going to complain if she got to go to sleep right here. Sleepless nights and exertion were finally catching up to her in one go. "I love you, Taabu," she continued in an even softer voice, as she began to drift off. She felt he deserved to know the truth, after all she'd put him through out of her anxiety, when she should have just trusted him. And he'd been the first to confess, after all. And it just felt nice to say it out loud after harbouring the secret for so long.
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2007 8:05 am
And the new family settled down with the parents eagerly watching the four new cubs between them. If life never got any better than this, who was going to complain about it?
[End]
((Finishing up old RPs))
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