Ua was struggling more than she would like to admit. She really wasn’t used to this whole ‘crush’ fiasco, and she couldn’t really talk to her father about it – that may end up in murder. Not of her! Of Arcus. That would be awkward, and really really embarrassing. She heaved a heavy sigh.
“You ok, m’love?” A sweet voice asked from the forest floor below her. Glancing down and spying the bright blue serval, Ua offered a smile.
“I’ve been better, Vio,” Ua whinged lightly, and shifted from her tree branch because she knew her friend could not climb quite as high as she could. She hit the ground with a light thud and promptly flopped down in a very dramatic sprawl. “Why are boys so stupid?” She demanded, and Viorica laughed loudly.
“Oh love, is it boy trouble?” The serval asked, rather unnecessarily considering Ua’s dramatic reaction. Ua groaned loudly and nodded, pouting towards her. “Have you told anyone?”
“Just Ardhira’i…and Eyad….and Kianga….”
“But not the boy?” Viorica looked amused. “I fear you’re doing this wrong, lovely.”
“If I tell him he’ll just laugh in my face…or just stare blankly at me until I leave him alone or spontaneously die.”
“You really have a flaw for drama don’t you,” Viorica noted dryly, pawing at the larger feline with a sort of loving frustration. “It’s not the end of the world to not have someone like you back, my dear. There’s a lot worse out there. Like almost getting eaten.”
Ua blinked. “You’ve been hunting again, haven’t you Vio?”
The servel sniffed in annoyance. “Yes. My goodness lions get mouthy if you try and take down one of their prey. I don’t mean ‘mouthy’ in the wordy sense either. Silly creature tried to take a bite of my tail, as if I’d let him get away with that.”
“There’s a lion near enough that you ran into him?” Ua asked, faintly curious. “He must be close to the colony then.” Viorica didn’t tend to wander too far from her free food and safety (ie the colony).
“He was just outside the forest edge,” Viorica noted dismissively. “Just some mouthy rogue that didn’t have a single respectful bone in his body. For shame! At least you have some respect, my dear. Be grateful for that!”
Ua rolled her eyes at the serval’s rant and dismissed the previous conversation to return to the original one. “Why are boys so stuuuupid?”
“Why is your boy so stupid?” Viorica prompted.
“He’s not my boy,” Ua said flustered. “Don’t say such things!” Her cheeks were flushed under her fur and Viorica couldn’t help the snort that came out of her at the girl’s denial.
“Whatever,” Viorica dismissed. “Tell me why.”
“He’s just…he doesn’t talk to me; that’s stupid. He doesn’t look at me; that’s really stupid, Papa tells me I’m quite pretty! He…doesn’t even know I exist,” she groaned, rolling onto her back dramatically. “Maybe I should just die. That would solve everything.”
“Only if you want to break your father’s heart,” Viorica pointed out, crawling onto the leopardess’ stomach and making herself comfortable. “Have you given this boy any reason to look at you, or talk to you?”
“Well, no, but boys are supposed to make the first move,” Ua retorted.
“Please, m’love! If you spend your whole life waiting around for a boy to make the first move, you’re going to waste your entire life waiting and wishing that some boy would get a single piece of sense knocked into their thick skulls.” Woops, that sentence turned into a bit of an angry rant just then. Viorica hadn’t intended that.
“Tell me about your boy again,” Ua prompted, pawing at her friend. “Maybe that will make me feel better.”
Viorica smiled slightly, though it was tinged with a little sadness, because how could one not be sad thinking of the one who got away. “I’ve told you all about him, my dear. I don’t think there’s anything else that I can say that you haven’t heard a million times over.” She glanced at the leopardess. “Why do you like the story so much?”
“I don’t know,” Ua sighed. “I just think it’s so romantic what you two tried to do.”
“Key word there, my dear, is tried,” Viorica pointed out. “Take my story as a warning, love does not always work out but, for all the knowledge in the world, do not use this as a reason not to try. My love and I were deliriously happy together while we were together, and we were heartbroken when we realised that we weren’t meant to be, but the time we had together is never going to be something I regret.”
“Never?”
“Even when it’s cold and dark and I miss him by my side, I don’t regret having him in my life for the brief time that I did, and I don’t regret missing him,” Viorica assured her. “Sometimes you have to miss things, and it’s all you can do to keep going, but I think he made me stronger. I lost, but I have moved on. I mean, I have you now.” She pawed at her friend, and Ua giggled, though it was sad.
“Do you think I should tell him?” The change in conversation back to the young female’s problems didn’t really surprise Viorica. She smiled.
“Yes, I do. What’s the worse that could happen?”
“Papa could kill him.”
Viorica laughed. “Well, if that’s all…”
Ua groaned. “Be serious, Viorica. Papa would kill any one who even looked my way. Imagine if he said ‘yes’. Papa might murder him.”
“Oh relax, your father is far more reasonable than you give him credit for,” Viorica scolded lightly. “If you just talked to him, he’d be happy for you finding someone. He just wants you to be happy.”
“He’d be happier if I was celibate for the rest of my life,” Ua pointed out.
“All father’s would be,” Viorica laughed. “Give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean, it’s not like it’s Arcus that you have a crush on or anything!”
Ua’s face fell immediately, though she tried to cover it up. Viorica had seen already though and after a moment of shocked silence, Viorica’s laugh soon filled the forest floor – a hugely loud sound for the smaller feline.
“Oh, my dear, your father is going to kill us all!”
-Fin- (1070)
