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Roho'wa Mamake, now an impressively full grown male, was actually easier to find than Azima had been expecting. The large and well-built male was enjoying yet another day of lazily strolling through the Pridelands, and had managed to end up wandering close to the border of the lands. Perhaps that was because he'd been thinking about Azima lately. Ever since his mane had fully grown through, actually. After all, now Azima could most definitely not call him 'baldy'. Besides, now that their earlier disputes had been settled and forgiven, Roho could think fondly of Azima as a friend. He would much prefer to think of someone else that way, rather than as someone he didn't like.

The golden male yawned as he walked through the grasses, not having anything planned today, other than keeping an idle lookout for something to make the day seem more interesting. Though, it was tempting just to find somewhere shady and nap. Boredom often made him feel incredibly lazy.

As he heard his name being called, the gold and cream male paused his stride, turning his head to look over his shoulder. What he saw made him laugh. Speak of the devil - or rather, think - and he shall appear. With his tail flicking behind him, Roho turned his body to face Azima, tilting his head slightly with an open, friendly smile. "Azima! What are-?"

The rest of his sentence was cut off as Azima pounced him, tumbling the both of them to the ground, with Roho underneath his bright red attacker. "Found me? I didn't know you were looking for me." Roho attempted to wiggle his way out from underneath Azima, but since he had always been a large male, with the strength that came with it, he automatically wriggled gingerly, to avoid accidentally hurting the other, something he'd done since longer than he could remember.

Pausing in his wriggling for a few moments, Roho turned his head to look at Azima quizically. "A lot of people, I guess. I just blend right in; I'm not noticeable like you. Everyone notices your colour, I expect." Of course, Roho was still dense enough about how he had bewitched Azima to not get what the other male was really getting at. He thought it was simply a matter of standing out - or not, as the case was with his fur. Standard colour for the lands he lived in, and he blended in perfectly with the grass in the Pridelands.

With a few grunts and the like, Roho finally managed to get out from underneath Azima, padding a few steps away and then shaking himself off, from his head to the tip of his tail, turning after to flash Azima a handsome grin. "Oh, I know. Now it looks like you're the one closer to being bald."

Roho faltered just a little bit as Azima looked so upset. He hadn't wanted to really insult the other male; he just wanted it to be a friendly little jab, pretend payback for calling Roho the same so long ago. But as Azima's expression changed into a pout, Roho had to assume the insult couldn't be all that bad. "Not really," he murmured, because in his mind, Azima had deserved that a little bit.

But then Roho blinked, what remained of his smile falling off his face as it went a little blank. Handsome? Him? Well, that was certainly something he hadn't heard before, and it left him a little bit off-balance. Pulling another smile back onto his face, this one more embarrassed than the last, he shrugged his shoulders slowly and glanced away. "Uh... well... thanks, I guess. You're, uh... you are, too." He didn't really think that way, and it was fairly obvious from his tone, but he felt he should at least return the compliment... in some way. It was only polite.

Roho'wa stared after Azima completely helplessly. How had their meeting gone so sour so quickly? Had his playful little tease really offended Azima that much? Of course, poor Roho didn't get that that wasn't the larger part of the reason Azima was now so apparently angry with him. He had thought the 'bald' comment to be a little joke, nothing more; now he wished he'd never said it at all, because he believed that was what had upset Azima. He didn't want his friend mad at him.

He slunk after Azima with his ears flattened into the creamy fur of his mane. He waited until he was beside the smaller male before speaking. "Azima?" he murmured to the red male, though didn't dare look at him. "What did I do? I'm sorry..." And he was, very much so. He hated that Azima might be upset with him.

Though Azima said it was all right, Roho sensed that it wasn't. Something was definitely bothering his friend, but he didn't know what. And what made it worse was that it was obviously something he'd done. He was definitely a people-pleaser, and he couldn't stand the thought of Azima being angry with him. But he had absolutely no idea how he was going to resolve the situation and make things casual and easy between them once more.

With his ears still flattened against his head, he managed the weakest of smiles when Azima batted at his shoulder. "I like you, too," he mumbled in response, though it was quite clear he, at least, meant this as a friend. "But that seems to make you mad." It wasn't that Roho was against the way Azima felt; it was more that he never thought of those kinds of feelings at all. He'd never met a female he would have considered in that fashion, but nor had he a male, either. To put it simply, Roho was in the dark about his true sexuality. He just... assumed he was normal and like the vast majority of males everywhere.

Sadly, and depressingly, this didn't seem to be getting any clearer for Roho. He blinked his big brown eyes as he tried to muddle out the difference between 'like' and 'like-like'. Double friendship, perhaps? He'd never heard the term before, and he associated the word 'love' with what Azima was getting at. At his age, in his prime, he should have already given this entire subject a great deal of thought and consideration, and having done such, he should have been able to discern Azima's meaning. Unfortunately, it just hadn't occured to him that he should be letting his thoughts wander that way.

At the mention of a sweetheart, though, his nose wrinkled ever so slightly. The only girls he was close to, really close, were his sisters, but he was smart enough, at least, to figure out that was most definitely not what Azima meant. He shook his head, strands of his creamy mane waving around his face. "No, no one like that." Female friends and acquaintances didn't really come under the title 'sweetheart'; he recognised that as a term of endearment, at the very least, even if he still didn't see the bigger picture behind Azima's questions.