[PRP] One thing leads to another... (Azar and Ursa)

[Kimaria]

She wasn't feeling much better about it now than she had been then. She had hoped that maybe after the one time she wouldn't have the urges anymore, but they were calling again. As she did her best to ignore it she also had to make a point to avoid other males in the pride, or she found herself tempted to place herself in their company.

Then her father found out. During a sparring match.

Yeah... her father and bad news during a sparring match........... noooot the best combination...

At least she'd convinced him not to try to kill or talk to the poor boy. Finally Ursa paused to have a look around, figuring she'd come out pretty far and curious as to where she'd found herself now. She gazed around and spotted the oasis on the horizon, and the cliffs farther back behind her. So about halfway into the dunes, then. She sighed, slumping down, never noticing that Uuo was leaving in the opposite direction heading towards the pride's cliff dens.  

[Kimaria]

Azar had learned that, whilst growing up was a good thing, it also brought a lot more stress than he had ever imagined. A lot more pain, too. Uuo was not going easy on him any more. Training was tough and everyday he felt himself getting more and more exhausted. He didn't even have enough time to tease or pick on anyone any more! Although there had been those cubs the other day...boy he could have got himself into serious trouble. But never mind, he'd spoken the truth and hey, the truth hurts. Better that scrawny little non-firekin cub finds out sooner rather than later. Before it gets too attached to its family.

Growling, he was moving across the dunes in an attempt to give himself some space.

He had another reason to be moody.

Uuo.

His crush was getting serious. He found himself getting flustered and awkward around her, especially when they sparred. And the worst thing was, there was no way he could ever tell her how he felt because...well...it was wrong, wasn't it? You can't fancy your teacher!? It just wasn't allowed, dammit!

He looked up and spotted Ursa. They had been getting on better now-a-days but he wasn't sure he was in the mood for her or not. Well...it couldn't hurt to say hello, could it? Maybe he could even ask her how he should be dealing with these stupid, irritating feelings.  

[Kimaria]

As she laid on the sand, eyes shut, just taking in the sunlight on her fur and her skin, she stopped. Her nose twitched and ears perked. Oh no, it just had to be Azar today, didn't it? She'd come out here to get away and unknowingly walked right into him, probably training with Uuo. Yes, she could smell her now too.

Reluctantly she opened her eyes and peeked, spotted him coming closer, so she gave up on the act of not noticing him and sat up, shaking the sand from her fur.

~Please just don't let him notice that I smell any different! The last thing I need to do now is mess up our friendship by sleeping with him!~

But even as she said it the subtle little details that drew her into him in the first place began pricking at her mind.

"Hello. Out training I guess?"  

[Kimaria]

He lifted his head and arched a brow. Something was different about her. Very different. Was she bigger? Maybe a little. Was she less mean? Possibly. Did she smell different? Definitely. Did she look...prettier?

Yes.

He gave a confused snort and dwindled, not coming too close, sort of uncertain. There was something different here but he couldn't quite put his paw on it. Yes, when it came to girls he was more than a little naive. "As always." He replied, slipping into his usual habits. "Gotta train hard if I'm gonna be the best, you know." He paused. "And I am going to be the best. I made a promise too. To Iroh. He's my friend now, you know." Yes, he was rather proud of that fact. A little sad really. He should have had lots of friends and instead he had only two.

Ursa and Iroh.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked suddenly.  

[Kimaria]

.... Was he looking at her oddly? WHY was he looking at her oddly? Ursa shifted nervously under his stare, half sure and half afraid to admit that he'd noticed that thing. As her paws shuffled just briefly on the sand she fought not to lower her ears.

"Mm... I'm sure you will, Uuo's a good teacher... and you have a lot of potential." That certainly wasn't a lie. Ursa believed in her loved ones, anyone that put their all into their goals, really, and it was easy to tell that Azar did that in everything he did, it was something she really, really liked about him.

"Really? That's ironic, Jua and I are--"

She stopped, not a good topic to branch into!!!

"I mean, we met, we're friends too."

Maybe he'd just pass it off as her trying to avoid rambling as usual. It WAS a bit ironic though, she was "friends" with his brother, and he was friends with hers.

"Wrong? ... Nothing is wrong, um.... why?" She swallowed, mouth feeling a bit dry. Why did it have to work out like this? With him crushing on Uuo and Ursa crushing on him, and now this awkwardness with her first cycle, and he'd obviously noticed something!  

[Kimaria]

"Course I do." He replied, puffing out his chest a little and realising that his growth spurt had brought him to her height. He hated being shorter than she was!! The smug smile faded a little at her next comment however. He didn't notice the hesitation, didn't even pay attention to why it might be ironic. All he heard was his brother's name and that was enough.

What was his brother doing hanging around with HIS friends?!

"Jua? Why do you want to talk to him for? You got the best of the litter here as your friend already, ain't you?" What was this then, a spark of jealousy? Apparently he didn't like to share his friends. "Jua ain't no good." What's this? Slating his own siblings who - as far as he was aware - had done nothing to cause such animosity.

"I dunno, you look different...I think." He drew slightly closer. "Nicer maybe. Perhaps cos you're losing all your cub-fat, right?" He grinned, showing the tips of white fangs.  

[Kimaria]

Ursa averted her eyes as he puffed up, he had certainly grown. It was to be expected, if Jua was old enough for that, of course Azar was now, and her senses were making her painfully aware of it.

Her ears folded down some at his outburst too, then, and she looked at him again.

"So you're allowed to have more than one friend, but I'm not??" She demanded, indignant and insecure and trying hard to be cautious in her wording so she didn't blurt out anything stupid. "That hardly seems fair. Jua's a perfectly good lion and a perfectly good friend! He was very kind to me." But she ducked back at the compliment, almost as if scalded, eyes wide.

"W... what do you mean, nicer? Don't be silly! I look the same as always!"

Oh crap oh crap oh crap that was just how it started with Jua! Then the next thing she knew they were tangled up at the oasis with Iroh walking in on them!

"It must be your imagination." She finalized, moving to hurry past him, towards the oasis, catching a full wiff of his scent on the way by and faultering a step because of it. "You're just... getting bigger, that's all. Of course I look different to you now. You're growing up."

KEEP. WALKING. D:  

[Kimaria]

What was he going to say to that? Yes, you can have friends, so long as they're girls. And definately no friends with siblings. Ursa was his friend. His! How dare Jua think that he could sweep in with his fancy-talk and take his friend away, dammit! He felt anger and jealousy stir in him, bristling the fur on his neck and shoulders.

Kind to her? Well of course he was kind. "An act." He blabbed, desperately trying to cover up this confused jealousy with words and failing.

And then she was moving? What the...? Where was she going? He turned, barely hearing her, only knowing that she was talking about him being grown up and still moving. W-wait! She couldn't go like this. Dammit. Now she was going to be mad because she thought he was being a weird creep who wanted to keep her friendship all to himself.

He pounced at her, not really thinking, just trying to stop her from getting away before he could explain that...well...what exactly he wasn't quite sure of yet.  

[Kimaria]

"OH!"

She shouted, agahst and furious. She was JUST about to turn on him and give him a piece of her mind too ("You--", HOW DARE he accuse Jua of putting on an act to get on her good side! Nevermind that if he was it had worked as he'd gotten more than she had been bargining giving him, but--

CRASH!

A startled yelp, and she hit the sand hard, with Azar on top of her. When the daze cleared she froze as her heart jumped to her throat, bristling, and didn't dare move.

"What are you--?!" She started, but didn't manage to finish, too flabberghasted by what he'd just done. He had just partially assaulted her!!!

...... And DAMN it! She was loathed to admit that she liked it.  

[Kimaria]

Um. What had he been about to say just then?

All thoughts seemed to have slipped from his mind right there and then. He glanced down into her shocked face, striped dark, set with shining red eyes. She was no longer little annoying Ursa, burden of his life. She was his friend. She was...grown up. He swallowed and tried to explain just what he was doing in an attempt to answer her half-spoken question. Sadly he didn't seem to be able to find the words.

She was rather pretty, actually, especially up close. Warm. Soft. She smelt nice too. Very nice indeed. He felt the slightest of purrs tickling the back of his throat.

And then he paused. What was he thinking?! He couldn't do this! He loved Uuo. Adored her. Worshipped her. And yet...were his feelings so fake that he'd quite as easily brush her aside for a simple moment like this? Luckily - or perhaps not so - Azar didn't have much of a conscience and he quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. There was always tomorrow for crushing on Uuo, right?

He leaned closer, smiled and, without warning gave her a lick across the nose.  

[Kimaria]

Ursa couldn't much find words or look away either. He was looking at her in a way that she had always wanted him to, the way she sometimes saw him looking at Uuo, and it just made her heart beat that much faster and harder. Swallowing hard she was sure he was going to call her a weirdo and shove off of her any moment now, so imagine her shock when he started to -purr-. Imagine her further shock when he SMILED! You'd start to get into mind-break territory by the time he had licked her.

For all of two heartbeats her heart stopped, then she reacted, reaching up to wrap a paw around his neck so that she could lean in and, unintentionally much like she had done with Jua, brush the flat of her head against his neck with a heavy purr of her own. It was like a dream, like maybe Finar-si might just be real after all, and had even gone as far as to grant a favor for one of her "children", except that Ursa didn't really believe in Finar-si, she was just a story, make believe. This moment was definitely real though, and if she was dreaming, why not live it up and indulge in the fantasy for a while longer?  

[Kimaria]

Now she was purring and it was pretty. And she was pretty. Everything about her was pretty. Why hadn't he noticed this before? Had she always been pretty or was pretty new? And why couldn't he stop thinking about how pretty she was. Ugh!! Maybe he should stop this now before it went to far, maybe he should just--

--all sensible thought came to a sudden halt.

Her paw came up around his neck. She was purring. Happy. She didn't mind that he'd just kissed her. Didn't mind that they were so close. Wasn't she just mad a minute ago? Or...was it all just a cover? His wide eyes went to her face again but her head moved up to rub against his neck and his mind was gone again.

Leaning forwards, he pressed his head into the crook between her neck and shoulder, breathing in the scent of her warm, dark fur. She was more than just pretty. She was beautiful! He pressed his face to hers, kissing her cheek, her ears, her face again. An image of Uuo flickered briefly into his mind but he pushed it away again, determined not to let it spoil this moment. He knew it'd be only this one time. Then she'd get mad and they'd be back to their old ways - yelling, arguing, winding each other up.

Hang on a minute, did he really want to ruin this friendship?

Ah heck, he still had one other friend, right!  

[Kimaria]

Things were definitely heating up, rather quickly at that. Ursa definitely liked having Azar's undivided attention like this, though. Jua and what had happened between them was officially gone from her mind completely. Still purring, louder as his kisses moved elsewhere, she batted her tail against his leg, licking back where she could.

Her last truly coherant thought was to wonder what this meant for their friendship, and then nothing else really mattered to her after that.  

[Kimaria]

---Time skip

Okay, freak out time. He blinked, glanced at Ursa lying at his side and slowly allowed the memories to filter through. That was when the panic had set in. Crap.crap.crap.crap! Had he really done that? Dammit! Teasing her, winding her up and making her mad was one thing, but this sort of act...that could land him in serious trouble!

He imagined her big, angry father, stomping around the desert looking for blood. His blood.

He felt sick.

"Ursa..." He hissed, then clamped a paw over his mouth. No, don't wake her, idiot! She'll get mad. Really, REALLY mad! Best just run off quick before she wakes up and has a chance to realise what had happened. Maybe she'll think it was a dream or something...or not.

As quick as he could he scrambled to his paws and took off across the sands, wondering where he was going to hide out for the rest of...his life.
 

[Kimaria]

Ursa finally woke up some time later, and when she did she was alone, though far from cold in the desert. It was probably almost evening though, and as she looked about, her heart sank. Azar was gone, he hadn't even tried to wake her up, had he? ...

Then hurt made way for anger, and she stood up abruptly with an angry roar. Oh... she was going to KILL him if he didn't have a really DAMN GOOD EXCUSE for ditching her! As she turned in the direction of the dens her mind raced.

That boy had a LOT of explaining to do.

/fin