zephira738
Aiko lay curled in her den, her lithe body wrapped lovingly around for little black and white, and pink, bundles of fluff. A soft purr hummed in her throat as her rough pink tongue ran across tiny little skulls. She’d been laying low for the past few days, barely sneaking out to grab some part of a kill, and the corner of her den was becoming a bit messy with the thoroughly gnawed remains of meals she just hadn’t taken the time to dispose of. But she was so loathe to leave them alone at all, they were still so small! And the only nanny she knew of in the pride…well.
She didn’t want her babies under Nyoka’s nose, that was for certain.
“I love you,” she crooned, nuzzling the tiny sleepy little cubs. Their eyes had opened a few days ago, and now their delicate little ears were almost uncurled. So small, so fragile, so precious… And they were hers. All hers. The purr rasped in her throat and vibrated through her chest as she groomed her babies. No one had even tried to bother her since the poor fool who’d arrived while she was out grabbing food. She was pretty sure his fur would cover the scar though…when it grew back anyway.
Warm.
It was warm here. Soft and safe. Mama was here. And the little white cub was happy. A tiny little scratchy purr gurgled in his throat as her tongue rasped over him, her scent filling his little nose and making him feel certain that all was well. Mama was here. Mama loved them. Mama kept them safe. Contented, Hikari nestled in with his siblings, his nose tucked happily against his mama’s dark flank as he blinked mismatched eyes sleeply closed.
FallenThroughMidnight
The black sister was quiet, curled up against the warmth she’d known was mother since before her eyes had been able to see the form and her ears open to hear the word. Words were still difficult for her, mostly meaningless. But slowly, a few had come to take on definition. The ‘I love you’s that mother always crooned while her soft warm breath washed over them and her body vibrated with that purring lullaby. Those words the little cub understood, just as she’d come to understand that she was ‘Kanie’. She was Kanie, and she was something else. Something longer, that she couldn’t remember all that well.
But she liked it better. It sounded stronger. She liked that. Kanie was just a name for babies, which she was. Soft lilac eyes blinked hazily up at the world around her, the den being all of their world at the moment. Mother went over there sometimes and vanished for a while. But then she was back and purring and nuzzling and ‘I love you’ing all over again. Kanie had taken to watching that spot, with increasing curiosity, wondering where it was mother vanished to and from every now and then.
Velveteen Angel
Satomei had her face buried in her mother's fur, sprawled out as far as she could against her mother's warmth. She seemed to try and take control of the situation, one of her paws flung across a sibling uncaring of whether they wanted it there or not. She loved to feel her family's warmth close to her, it was a comforting feeling. She hated it when their mother left the den, crying little mewls and cuddling into her siblings until she came back. She was vocal when their mother would return as well, giving saddened mewls to let her know just how much she had been missed before Satomei buried herself back into her fur to sleep again.
The little bundle of fluff yawned into her mother's side, and purred lightly at her mother's voice. I love you. She didn't know what it meant yet but it made her whole body feel warm and like she was safe. She loved those words. She gave a soft mewl, her own version of I love you, until she was old enough to speak.
Nanashi hadn't seen his sister in over a week. Not that it was an uncommon occurrence but usually he would see her out of the corner of his eye when she is flirting with a male, or some unfortunate female. Some of the males were getting 'worried', or in other words, wanted to know where she was because they were bored or had use of her. Apparently, one male had gotten 'attacked', dramatized he was sure, by her one day when he approached her and they now decided it was Nanashi's duty as her brother and as the Boss, to go and talk to her.
He was thrilled. Just what he wanted to do with a nice bright day, go talk to his probably just lazy sister about why she isn't 'entertaining' the men properly. Wonderful.
Of course, he was faintly worried. He was used to seeing her around. What if something terrible had happened? He unconsciously quickened his pace towards the den she had been assigned and hesitated out the front. Nothing looked out of place but...something smelt...odd. He frowned, and hoped to high heavens that she didn't have a male in there with her at the moment, stepping inside.
"Why have you been-Gah..."
It took him a moment or two, as his eyes sought her out, to recognize the bundles of fluff which rested against her. His mouth dropped open and his eyes went wide.
"Aiko...cubs?" He blinked rapidly, as if they would disappear if he blinked more. Wonderful. Just...wonderful.
This was so much worse than if she had been entertaining a male.
zephira738
Her cubs probably didn't need any further grooming, being that she spent nearly all of her time doing so these days. But it didn't seem likely to hurt them, and even though it was all she'd done lately she never grew tired of it. Her throat occasionally got tired from the constant rasp of purring, and her tongue would get dry, but if she'd not needed to worry about these things Aiko would probably have never stopped. Her babies. Hers.
It was the most wonderful thing in the world. She loved them so much! And in return they needed her. What more could she ever ask of anyone than these sweet little balls of fluff! Just these four precious tiny little things and her whole world was complete. So what if Dysi had stopped talking to her when she told him of her pregnancy. So what if Nanashi hated her and tried to stop her 'shaming' him. So what. She had her cubs, her precious, precious little ones.
Gods have mercy on the souls of those who dared to try changing that.
The gentle thrum of her purr changed to a low growl as someone entered her den, narrowed eyes glaring a livid warning to whoever this intruder was...oh. Great. Nana.
"Mine," she growled at him, her spotted tail sweeping around the cubs and drawing them closer as her body curled even more protectively over them. Motherhood had clearly done a few things to the already somewhat off-kilter entertainer's mind.
The growl frightened him. Hikari mewled in frightened protest when the lazy soothing purr he'd grown so accustomed to changed, and his clumsy paws skittered as something big pressed him up against his mama's side. His mama's side that wasn't humming pleasantly with love but rather vibrating with a warning.
Distressed, the white boy kneaded her flank and mewled pitifully, trying to figure out what made the happy feeling change and why it was scary.
FallenThroughMidnight
Keikani squirmed in protest at the limb that suddenly draped itself over her body, trying to pull free of the sibling that was assualting her space. She didn't mewl as her white brother did when her mother stopped nuzzling them to snarl at an intruder.
Instead, her pale eyes fixed on the spot, Kanie stopped struggling to stare with unfocused vision at the Stranger. It was big, and black, like mother and her one brother was. With a small squeak of surprised air escaping her young lungs, the cub was swept up and pressed against her mother's ribs. She struggled slightly, trying to see where the Stranger had come from, wanting to know where mother vanished and where people unvanished from.
Maybe if she knew she could vanish too and unvanish with mother.
Velveteen Angel
Satomei yowled as her arm was first shoved off her comfy sibling, whoever it was, she hadn't opened her eyes to check who it was, and soon she was swept closer to her mother. She had been close to start with and now she was squished up against her siblings. Yowling again, she squinted her eyes tiredly as she peered, not at the stranger, but up at her mother.
She gave a low rumbling growl up at her mother, which sounding a little more like a squeak than the young cub had meant to, but it was the thought that counted right? She didn't like being abruptly moved and she didn't like that horrible growling noise. She tried her own growl, again coming out as as squeak, as she snuggled into her mother's fur sleepily. She wished her mother would stop moving and go back to nuzzling them. She liked the nuzzling.
Nanashi hadn't expected such a violent reaction to his prescence from his sister, but it made sense. He was intruding on a very private, very worrying moment. Cubs. Young, very young cubs, which could be taken away from her or threatened if the pride found out when they were so young. Damn it. She had no sense.
"Damn it, Aiko," he hissed quietly but not aggressively. The cubs reacted to tone, not words, at least not yet. He stepped forward, not away from her, but further into the den, stepping fully inside so no passing stranger would spot him lurking. "Didn't you realise that by keeping yourself locked up you were going to make things more suspicious than if you had gone out in the pride? The males are getting suspicious and may have sent someone other than me, and then these...secrets would have been out." He wouldn't refer to them as cubs. They looked more like balls of fluff at the moment.
He eyed them. "Are you hiding them from the whole pride or just their father?" His voice suggested that he doubted she even knew who the father was.
zephira738
Aiko just glared at her sibling, the low warning growl still buzzing in her throat. He might be her brother, but that wouldn't stop her from protecting her precious tiny little babies. Suspicion was in her violet eyes as he stepped further into the den, her hackles rising slightly until his stopped moving.
"They're mine," she growled again, before turning to lick her mewling and yowling and now very upset precious little treasures briskly. "They need me!" she added petulantly, "I can't leave them! And if they find out I have them and don't think I can look after them, then they'll take them away from me and give them to someone else to watch! But they're my babies!" she insisted, glaring at him again as she curled even more tightly around her little ones.
"You can't take them either!"
The cries of his sisters only upset him further. Why wasn't mama loving on them? What was making her growl and be scary? Mewling pitifully, Hikari tried to worm his way to see, but only managed to drape himself over his white sister instead, one awkward paw somehow wedged under his brother. Her yowls had frightened him further, as had the new not-mama voice, and he just wanted to hide in mama's fur, only now he was stuck against his sister instead.
Still crying pathetically, the white cub struggled to find he way back to where he'd been tucked against his mother's flank. He'd felt safe there before! He wanted to be snuggled against mama again!
FallenThroughMidnight
The black girl squirmed, her utterly uncoordinated ears trying to lay back in protest to her sister's yowls of complaint. Keikani had never been much for making uncessary noise, as her brother and sister seemed prone to do. She'd always been quieter, though now that Satomei was growling Kanie uttered a low squeaky snarl of her own, trying to rise to her feet only to fall flat on her face.
Now she was stuck in her sister and her brother! And still couldn't figure out what was happening and why everyone was crying while mother growled at a stranger who'd just unvanished into their small world.
Velveteen Angel
Satomei whined as she was squished. Too many siblings, too much noise. She just wanted it all to stop! She began to whine and growl, burying her face under her sister so she would help to block out the noise. She didn't even know where Mummy was anymore, too distraught by all the noises.
Nanashi had stopped a distance from her, but firmly inside the den. He knew that she would see it as an invasion of her and her cubs privacy, but he would not let her get kicked out of the pride for something so stupid as hiding cubs of a male who didn't want them.
"Of course they need you," he snapped, but quietly, so as to not upset the cubs further. He felt like a jerk, making them so upset but damn it, he had a right to know when he was an uncle and when his sister was hiding babies in her den which could get her into serious trouble! "But they won't have you if you get kicked out of the pride for your own stupidity."
He tossed his head, furious at his sister but keeping his eyes firmly on her rather than her cubs, so as not to terrify them. "I don't want your cubs. What I want is for you to calm down, stop making this situation worse, and talk calmly so the cubs do not have aneurysms from panicking." His voice ha calmed down now, barely above a purr. He knew his voice would still be frightening to the cubs, but his angry tone would make it worse.
zephira738
Aiko only bared her teeth in a snarl as her brother snapped at her, her hackles bristling once again. She knew he hated them, he hated her lifestyle and her passions so anything born of them he would hate. So of course Nanashi didn't want them. But she did. But he would not take them away from her. They were hers! Her babies! And they needed her. She loved them and they needed her and no one was ever going to touch them, ever! She'd kill anyone who tried!
She continued to bristle at him, though the growl slowly ebbed the silent snarl remained. He was upsetting her precious babies after all. Her eyes still warily on him, she dropped her head to nuzzle and lick her little ones until they stopped mewling, settling them back against her flank and untangling the mess they'd made of themselves.
Only once they were completely calmed did she stop tending to them, Nana could leave if he was bored or annoyed at being ignored. "I don't care what you think," she informed him quite calmly. "They're my babies and I love them. I'll kill you if you hurt them." And not in the metaphorical sense either.
Hikari mewled pitifully, trying to find his way to his mama and unable to disentangle himself from his sister. He wanted mama! He was scared and he wanted mama, and he couldn't find her even though he could smell her all around and hear her growling at the not-mama voice, which meant the not-mama voice was bad and he was scared!
When her tongue rasped across his shoulders he cried again, trying to find his way back to her until she lifted him from the pile and tucked him back against her. He could feel his sisters and brother being rearranged as well, and cuddled back in against her, his frightened mewls ceasing as he felt somewhat better. Here mama was. He was safe here.
