From the conglomerate mass of black fur and limbs, a tail flicked complacently. It slithered upon the silky shoreline with a subtle hiss as white sand scattered to and fro. Heenalu glanced toward the lioness whose body had entwined with his. A warm smile stretched across his maw as he mused with a rumbling chuckle.
Heenalu Muuku let his gaze travel down the beach as he sampled the evening scents. There was a salty overlay, but he caught and enjoyed the aromas: sun-warm earth and cinnamon bark, flowery blossoms with a fruitiness of succulent summer sweets.
Closing his eyes briefly, Heenalu bathed in the aromas of their home.
Beside him, Kimuli shifted and slowly woke from her nap. Her forepaws stretched outward, kneading into the sands. She felt the breeze ruffle her black fur backward from tail to nape. Warmth grew on her fur, and the scent of salt-soaked sands mingled with the freshness of new sea grass. Yawning until her tongue quivered, Kimuli'muli huddled closer against her mates’ bulk. The breeze ticked the spur whiskers at the back of her front paws, teased the hairs inside of her ears and the silky velvet at their edges. It played with the longer fur around her ears, tugging at her nose and eyebrow whiskers.
Swiveling her head to turn her gaze, she was surprised as she found herself staring into her mates face.
"Nalu!"
Kimuli sat up, batting a paw against his face and attempted to push him away. Her cheeks became seized with a flush of pink although, thankfully, her fur masked its presence. The wings of her nostrils flared with a mild irritation. She snorted. He was such a cheeky blighter.
A thrumming laugh erupted.
“Kimuliiiiiiiiiii,” he drawled, pursing his lips with a feline pout. His bottom lip curled with a quiver, pupils enlarged with a luster of faux innocence.
The paw that pressed into his left cheek turned his head elsewhere but that wasn’t enough to deter his devious determination. Suddenly Nalu ducked. He grinned from ear to ear as the barrier that she had erected was now dismantled which left her vulnerable for the attack. Throwing himself forward, Heenalu pounced.
There was little time for a reaction as the burly lion leapt towards her. Already it seemed grim—having to endure his childish antics were a chore on its own. The cogs of her mind reeled, tossing around predictions of what would come next. Pinned with her back pressed against the sands, she was helpless. She couldn’t fight him and struggling to free herself would only be a waste of precious stamina. Helplessly she watched his toothy barricade part, opening as a rugged, pink tongue emerged from out of his gaping maw. As saliva began to salivate from his maw, Kimuli cringed.
“Nalu,” her voice carried with a soft, although stern, tone that urged him to rethink that devious plan of his.
Unwavering, he inched closer.
“Henaluuuuuu …”
Before Kimuli could even configure an elusive plan it was too late. The tongue planted itself upon her maw with up-most slobbery, sweet affection—licking upward from her lips, up and over her nose, and along the bridge of her muzzle. Kimuli’muli’s ears immediately flattened against her skull, amber orbs locked in a dead pan stare watching as the pink menace disheveled her fur and left a trail of oozing endearment behind.
Amused and highly satisfied, Nalu withdrew his tongue only to conceal it back behind his fanged façade. Another thrumming chortle of laughter escaped from out of his maw as he kept her subdued within the sands.
“You shoulda’ known better,” he winked.
A smirk twisted upon her maw for a moment before it disappeared only to unfold anew with a lack of enthusiasm. Kimuli rebuked, “I was expecting something more…exciting.”
“Exciting?”
“Something that would sweep me off my paws, make me swoon, give me butterflies—make me fall in love with you all over again.” Kimuli canted her head to the side ever so slightly, “You still do, don’t you?”
“Of course I do!” Nalu shouted, the words barreling out from his maw in attempt to smother the existence of such a question. “Kimuli, I have so much love for you I just… I can’t explain it- I mean, I can but not, well, not with words…”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Kimuli peered at him curiously.
She couldn’t help but feel somewhat concerned for his metal well-being at the moment; Mkodi knows that Heenalu had hit his head one too many times on the reef and maybe, just maybe, it was now becoming detrimental.
Heenalu pursed his lips thoughtfully. His ears twitched with a nervous flutter. He perused and sifted amongst his mind for not only the right way to explain it but the best approach to exceed such high expectations. His eyes mulled over her, in taking her figure with a slow savor. A simple tune began to dance along the shore of his mind's consciousness, dipping into the waters of his soul as they rippled with words, feelings—there were so many emotions.
Although they couldn't be phrased all at once he had to start somewhere.
"I'll watch the night turn light-blue but it's not the same without you because it takes two to whisper quietly…”
His voice fluctuated slightly as he attempted to find the flow of the words that stumbled off of his rusty tongue. Singing was something he enjoyed, something Nalu dabbled in as a way to kill time between sets of waves. Perhaps it was that old pride tradition that still kindled inside of him- something that, over time, had become a part of him.
Heenalu licked his mates forehead, and bumped it gently his his own. “Drenched in vanilla twilight, I'll sit on the front porch all night waist-deep in thought because when I think of you I don't feel so alone."
The lioness muffled her laughter, biting down upon her bottom lip as she shook her head side to side. Truth be told she did enjoy his singing but it was impossible to stop a swell of embarrassment from churning inside of her. Nalu's voice often carried farther perhaps more so than he even realized, she thought. A sudden tsunami of butterflies crashed into her stomach as it set her heart a-flutter against the cavity of her chest. Kimuli felt his forehead press against hers while his very scent latched onto the wings of her nostrils and penetrated her senses. She breathed deeply, smiling.
With her back against the sands, the lioness threw her paws around her mates neck and pulled him closer.
A tender smile broadened across his maw. "I don't feel so alone, I don't feel so alone. As many times as I blink, I'll think of you tonight.”
The world around them seemed still, waiting anxiously for what was to be said next. Above them, cirrus clouds lightly whisked the skyline as a touch of vanilla glazed the evening sky. Stars that were strewn within the milky sky sparkled with a radiant luster that transfigured its appearance with enchanting beauty. Nature seemed to lull with a subtle yet serene symphony accompaniment creating an interlude before the finale.
Heenalu inhaled deeply, filling his lungs to the brim with sweet sea air. A wreath of mist plumed gently from out of his maw with a paced exhale. He mustered his stamina for the final verse.
"When violet eyes get brighter, and heavy wings grow lighter, I'll taste the sky and feel alive again. And I'll forget the world that I knew but I swear I won't forget you. Oh, if my voice could reach back through the past I'd whisper in your ear 'Oh darling, I wish you were here'..."
He drew his muzzle closer, slowly, before Heenalu found his lips pressed against Kimulu's. Both hearts beat with a rhythm of their own, beating in sync one with another as they reverted back into a heap of fur and limbs underneath a vanilla twilight sky.
