Welcome to Gaia! ::

Aysu was in luck. Yareha had finally managed to get outside of the den without a single cub waking up. This was the fifth attempt, and here he was finally successful! The white lion wanted to roar his exultation to the sky, but wisdom prevailed and he wisely continued tip-toeing away. Some fresh air, some adult conversation perhaps...these would be a nice break from fatherhood.

He was just congratulating himself on his escape when he caught sight of the familiar figure heading his way. He'd seen Aysu a fair bit of late, both of them being parents now and it making sense to bring all the kids together to play. This was a bit harder now, as Aysu's children were juveniles and his own were still silly cubs.

However, not a single child trailed behind the lioness and Yareha suppressed a twinge of nervousness as he watched his sister approach.

"What brings you here?" he asked as he came within quiet speaking range, still wary of waking the cubs.

All sorts of warnings were going off in the white lion's head. Aysu didn't do serious often and when she did, frankly, Yareha had learned to avoid it. The fact that she'd sought him out, and at a time when so much of the pride's attention was focused on HIM...well, it made him incredibly uncomfortable, to say the least.

Still, she was his sister and while they hadn't formally made up after their big spat, she'd been fairly friendly lately. Which meant he should hear her out unless if he wanted a second even worse argument during what was easily the most difficult period of time in his entire life.

"Sure," he said at last, smiling at the black lioness. "Did you want to go somewhere...more private?" Yareha offered tentatively.

Yareha's hopes plummetted as Aysu took him up on the offer. He hoped, he prayed that it had nothing at all to do with Kizev and 'Dama, whom he really had to stop thinking of as being his children. Kivuli was raising them, Kivuli was their father. They were incredibly lucky and he had to forget about them. Otherwise he was likely to slip and screw things up.

He managed to keep Laelia out of his thoughts on that one.

"Lead the way," he told his sister, trusting her to pick an appropriate place for whatever bad news she had to tell him.

Yareha had already stopped, as soon as the lioness mentioned Laelia. He'd been trying to avoid thinking about that other situation. The brown lioness had continued avoiding him after their run-in and he'd resigned himself to the fact that whoever's cubs they were, they were ruining his chances of getting back together with Laelia. He almost told Aysu that he didn't want to hear about the father if it wasn't himself.

But that was a selfish position and really, if Laelia had finally given voice to a name, it was inevitable that he in particular would hear about it.

"I hadn't," he answered at last, eyeing Aysu carefully. He really, really didn't want to hear what she had to say.

...wait. WHAT? She...he had to hearing her wrong. He could have sworn she'd just said Mazin. Their cousin Mazin. Selene's old sweetheart whom the high class had rejected on the basis of too much trouble with slaves lately and brought in Fuu and-

Stop. Slow down. He had to think this through. Mazin wasn't that dissimilar in age to Laelia, he was intelligent and attractive, and by all reports, perfect father material. Yareha thought the only thing that would have surprised him more would be if Kivuli'mwezi or, even worse Mwezi'mtoto was the name she gave. The white lion shuddered at the thought.

On the other hand, he couldn't help feeling betrayed. He knew that part of what had originally attracted the lioness to him was the fact that he'd caused a bit of a stir just for speaking his mind (publicly, and been publicly reprimanded for it). But for the father of her cubs to be the lion that particular bit of drama had centered around...? It hit him in his gut.

He wanted to protest it, to say that there was no way it was true. But Aysu had no reason to lie to him.

He oh-so-conveniently forgot to consider the fact that Laelia, like Kivuli, might be telling a lie to protect somebody else.

Aysu's words woke him up to the fact that this was still a conversation and he was expected to respond. Verbally. The white lion shook his head to clear it. He really...had no idea what to say.

"Yeah, I'm okay," he mumbled, shaking his mane again and turning to go.

"I uh...sorry Aysu, I just...can't...right now..."

Couldn't think, couldn't vocalize, simply couldn't wrap his mind around the thought. Couldn't believe it. Just...couldn't believe it.