He didn't mind so much, or wouldn't, if his thoughts still weren't blackened by other things. DAMN that woman! He'd been in such a good mood until he'd come back here to... that. Once more the mantra repeated within 'just ignore it, just ignore it' and so he tried. The crabs certainly did.
It wasn't often that Sewti went anywhere with the intentions of doing something. She was usually a very easy-going girl that let the world come to her, let things happen as they happened, and that was simply the end of it. Today, however, she felt that she should really find that boy and see if she couldn't wedge her way beneath his seemingly thick skull. She'd heard all of the blubbery from all directions and if Nili was going to continue to eat himself up over it, well, she could at least try and make it a little easier for everyone involved. Try being the key word.
"Panu," she called out, loping along slowly as she trudged down the beach. Kisi had bluntly decided to stay behind and sunbathe where they were, having no interest in the affairs of the gypsy lions, and Sewti couldn't say she minded. Her bossy input probably wouldn't have been very appreciated at this point.
"'ey." Panu didn't life his head for he had a small crab on the end of his nose. A few of them waved at the new lioness, but for the most part the collection of crustaceans seemed pretty uncarring.
He turned his head carefully to greet her with a smile, feeling somewhat cheered up. At least this was someone who wasn't biased; someone who wouldn't try and push him in some direction... or so he thought. "Whats up?"
She paused as she saw the mills of crabs covering his form, her mouth forming quickly into an amused grin. "Been taken over, have you?" She flopped down comfortably beside him on the sand, then used her tail to wave back at the few tiny crustaceans that had acknowledged her presence.
"I just finished talking to your brother," she said, her grin fading as she chewed at the inside of her cheek. She didn't really know how to bring this up to him, being that he had never really mentioned Kapuki to him before. "Says you've got some problems," she supposed taking it slow was best. She really just wanted to help.
"Apparently I'm prime real estate," Panu replied good-naturedly with a chuckle. Her next sentence caused him to groan, however, and he rolled his eyes. "He would go about gossiping about that, wouldn't he?"
She shrugged at his question and relaxed in the sand, rolling slightly onto her shoulder so that she could face him while lying on her side. She hated to ruin the good natured conversation they were having, but sometimes things were important - even she knew life wasn't always fun and games. "He wasn't gossiping. I thought he was going to dig a hole to the center of the world the way he was pacing, brought it on myself when I asked him what was wrong."
"Ah. yes, never ask him that.. just a warning." Panu shrugged a little, somewhat more casually than he felt. He was rewarded with a pinch from... someone. It was impossible to tell which was which when you had a whole host of crabs running through your fur.
A few of them scattered over to "claim" the new territory that Sewti's body offered. "They're kids," He informed her with a jerk of his head to indicate the two proceeding to scale the mountains of her paws. He didn't think she'd have an issue with it but... well. If she was hungry she could eat one and no one would blame her for that. Lions were predators, after all. "I'm gonna guess you wanna talk about it."
"Kids, right," she said slowly as the little buggers began to climb her paws. Her mouth twitched into a half smile at the feel of their little legs scrambling over her fur. It tickled, but she was trying not to laugh. She lifted one paw slightly, not far and not sudden, to get a better look, before relaxing it again upon the sand beneath her.
"I, yeah," she said, letting the smile fade again as she glanced back up at him. "Nili.. says that's why you left," she said slowly, clicking her tongue as she tried to talk about it. It was awkward, as she'd never asked him, never pried into anything about him that he didn't want to talk about freely. She was never good at this sort of thing, to be honest.
Panu went silent a moment, looking out at the ocean. "Not.. entirely." He waited a few minutes more, collecting his thoughts. That was the nice thing about Sewti, the difference between her and... Kapuki or Nili. She actually gave him room to think and explain before accusing. Nili wasn't as bad about it, but he was terribly biased. "I never really fit in here when I was a kid, Sewti. I don't mean that in a self-pitying fashion, mind, I just... didn't. I was far more physical than my siblings, and they were the only kids around to play with. And more brash. I wanted to explore and break rules and be a general terror, and that isn't just something that was acceptable. Granted, it shouldn't be, but it did lead to my feeling as if I would do better else where."
Panu shook his head, "And then Kapuki... well. There's a lot of controversy surrounding how we met and things... meant by it. I resented her because she got along with my family, especially my brother, better than she did me... and I resented Nili, especially, because she liked him better than me. The closer they became, the more often they teamed up against me when I was being an a**."
He pointed a claw at her, "Yes, I understand now that I deserved it, and nor can I explain.... why it hurt so much. But her constantly telling me how the sun shone out of Nili's a**, and vice versa.... especially after I developed a rather retarded, inexplicable crush on her? ... mah. I wasn't smart enough to be able to deal with it. I'm still not."
She grinned lightly at the thought of two girls, or what might as well be two girls, teaming up on him when he acted like an a**. She had issues seeing him as a terror, as he'd only ever been easy-going and kind to her, but she suspected that the time away from home had changed that as it was meant to.
"So, basically, you're jealous of the relationship between your brother and Kapuki? Or were?" she quirked a brow at him slightly, then looked down at her paws where the little crabs crawled. "This girl is upset because I'm here, you claim they're hypocritical because of that, since you think it's kind of the same thing." She was trying to remember what Nili had said - she knew he had said that.
With a sigh, she rolled her eyes, fed up with trying to figure this out. She didn't think like a girl, she couldn't do this advice crap so easily. "You all sound like hypocritical big babies, to me."
"I was when we were kids, yes........" He paused, "Honestly I'm just more frustrated than anything else, now. If those two were together they'd BE together by now and I'd be free to move on."
He shook his head, "I told her straight up that we're just friends, Sewti. She refuses to believe me. Now, I get what you're saying. Its supposedly hypocritical of me to be annoyed that they won't believe me about this when I did this as a kid. Thing is, they were the ones insisting that i shouldn't be bothered by a friendship then. They're just friends! They're just friends! They kept treating me like i was an idiot for seeing anything more.. but when their explanation is given back to them, they refuse to believe it."
He paused and then groan a little, but not at her, "and YET, still refuse to admit that my reaction back then was at all justified."
"I don't know, your brother seems to believe there's nothing going on between us just fine. Seems to me like it's just that other girl," she shrugged her shoulders, "so maybe you should stop saying 'them' and just say 'her'?" She'd talked to Nili, he seemed to trust what she said, trust that there was nothing going on between Panu and herself.
She sighed, flicking her tail lightly behind her, letting the tip of it drag through the sand. "So because they're being stubborn, you're going to be stubborn right back, and the whole lot of you are just going to be a big bunch of stubborn brats?" She quirked a brow, then shook her head. "You do realize that doesn't make any sense at all."
Panu growled and rolled his eyes. It wasn't a mean noise, or at least was not meant that way, and he looked away from her. Willi was watching him, sitting down near the lion's tail. That got another deep sigh from the lion, "Alright, FINE, its just Kapuki that's being her normal b***h self. Have either of you ever considered that I'm not being STUBBORN, i just don't CARE to persue it?"
He glared back at her finally, "I ******** told Nili that I don't want a relationship with Kapuki, regardless of what I feel about her. I don't want someone I have to sit there and baby and weedle around her."
He shook his head, "Frankly, I'd much rather fall for someone a lot easier to talk to--like you."
There was a pause then he made a rather interesting face, "But not you. No offense, but you're... well.. a boy."
"Oh yeah, that's right, all that nonsense about a partner," she said with a soft sigh, the look on her face probably as close to feminine bitchiness as she was ever likely to get. "So you'd rather pass up someone you have feelings for because it's going to take a little work and find someone else just because it's the easy way out?" It wasn't mean, just questioning.
She glanced up at him, watching him quietly for a minute, then shook her head slowly. "It doesn't work that way. You don't choose who you love, Panu. Just because you want it to be easy doesn't mean it will be, just because you want something doesn't mean it's going to make you happy." She might not have been a romantic, or a female by every term, but she knew that much.
"None taken," she said with a snort, amused at the thought, "you remind me of my brothers, and that would be too much like incest."
He lifted a brow, "And who is saying that I love her? I don't even know that i love her. Feelings, sure, but who decides what is and is not love? Beyond that, there is nothing that says you fall in love with just one person, ever. You can love someone and know without any doubt that they are the worst possible person for you--even IF i love Kapuki, its not that it just isn't easy, its WRONG."
He shook his head, "She drives me insane, Sewti. she makes me want to HIT her. I almost did, the last time she slapped me, and it took everything I had to walk away from her. I'm no longer in a position where I can run away from this, and I can't be going about hitting people just because they piss me off. You say I'm chickening out because it isn't easy--Since when do i ever give up on anything difficult? I thrive on learning things the hard way, otherwise I never would have left this pride. She's not GOOD for me, Sootie. She makes me into someone i hate, every time I so much as try to talk to her. She always has."
She nodded at his words, realizing now what he meant. She couldn't say that it didn't make sense, because it did. If he felt like that around her, she could understand him not wanting to be. "If she turns you into someone you don't want to be, then I can understand." She didn't know what she could say to him to make him want to try, and on some level it felt like she was letting him down. She wasn't really sure why she felt like she needed to convince him to try it, but she had told Nili she would talk to him.
"Maybe she has to change then," she said with a shrug, "if she cares about you as much as Nili says, then I don't see why she won't try. I don't know her, and gods does she sound like she's a bit off her rocker, but have you ever had a real conversation with her?" He hadn't before he left, he implied it, Nili said it, it was obvious. She didn't know if he had bothered to try and tell her how he felt when he got back, or if it had all just come down to an argument.
"One or two," He replied slowly, thinking about it. "I got her to explore with me a few times, when we were kids...." He sighed, "There are days when she's not so bad, I'll admit, a few times when we can get along. Thing is... I'm not sure she can change or would be willing to--and I don't see where I have any right to ask that of her. Trying to change someone who doesn't want to change is not a good idea. Same with asking them to do that."
He paused and shrugged, "If she wants to act like a person around me, I'll go along with it. I don't inted to treat her like a leper, but I'm not going to go out of my way to try and court her or play into her twisted little delusions."
Sewti frowned slightly, but nodded, laying her head down slowly between her paws. She had no right to tell him what to do or what not to do, and he seemed to have his mind made up. "Maybe you should have a little more faith in her though. I'm sure you're not the only one that is hurt, Panu, and maybe she is thinking about how she's acted right now. You.. left and went away to change yourself. You were gone for a long time." She glanced up, looking over at him, "maybe she needs some time too." It was odd, defending someone she had never met, but it felt wrong to her to just let something like this die. That, and on some level, she felt a little guilty that she was part of the reason the other girl was upset to begin with.
Panu gave her an odd look, then shook his head. "Don't know, Sootie... just don't know." his tone wasn't as 'final' as it could have been, though, and he looked out over the ocean again. Slowly he laid his own head down upon his paws in turn, ending up with his temple pressed against hers. At least he had a brother he could talk to.
She smiled weakly at his tone, but let her gaze flicker out to the ocean too. Maybe there was a little hope, and maybe this conversation wasn't all for nothing. If she could help a little, well, that was better than nothing.
