[PRP] Well Aren't You... Cute [Pur & Borachio]

[Cajanic]

It was a rough being the king’s son, with a mother no one knew. A mother that wasn’t the queen. How rough it was to live such a half life, never knowing who will hate you for your birth and who will be accepting! Such a terrible existence to be shunned by some members, just because he…

Nah, he totally loved his position in life. His purple got him respect, his father gave him right to brag and his mother added just the right bit of drama to keep him motivated as he acted with his fellow players. Yes, being a player was the life for him. He enjoyed making up roles and showing them to the other members of the pride. It was even better than talking gossip with the nosey nobles.

Actually, he didn’t know which one he liked more.

One day, he hoped to be a well known player- famous throughout the pride. Throughout many prides, even. Maybe he would go out with some merchants some time. Take his show on the road for a few days, then come back to tell the other players his story. Yes, that would be great.

Humming to himself, the growing male spun himself in circles, perfecting a dance he knew would please the masses in an isolated corner of the massive clearing, near enough to the forest to make some of the nobles nervous, while close enough to home not to get himself into any trouble.

The perfect practice place.
 

[Princess_Feylin]

Pur'Jed , had gotten better as she'd gotten older about going toward the forest. Since it wasn't specifically forbidden to her anymore, she didn't have to feel like she was committing a crime and risking chastisement when she went there, and she liked that. One thing Pur was not was a rule-breaker. She believed in law and tradition, for such things defined her world and kept everything and everyone where they belonged.

That was part of the reason she found herself in such an uncomfortable position. She had done something which went against the rules, and she couldn't seem to help it. It was, she decided as she stalked away from the den, all Borachio's fault. She'd seen him among the players the last time she and her parents went to see a performance and been struck by how good-looking he was growing up to be. How dare he be so pleasant to look at and at the same time so off-limits?

If she'd not been so tied into her rules and structure, Pur might have told her mother or father, or even her aunt, about her feelings and one of them could explained that what she felt was simply a childhood infatuation and not the true love she was terrified it might really be. She couldn't do that, though, because she couldn't admit to liking the king's natural son.

She was so tied up in her self-inflicted torture that she didn't notice Borachio's humming, which ordinarily would have served as a warning, and so she suddenly found herself a few yards away from the dancing adolescent. Her eyes widened and her stomach dropped. She had to do something, or say something, and yet her tongue was still and her paws rooted. Calamity!  

[Cajanic]

The deep purple male worked himself around in elegant circles, trying to make his movements as flowing and smooth as some of the other dancers he’d seen. It was always about being the best of the best with him- the one who needed to be praised. While he knew he could have stayed a noble if he had wanted to, and could have had forced respect that way, he knew it was more worthwhile to earn it. Being the best player in the pride? That would make him a very well respected creature indeed. It wouldn’t matter what birth he’d had or anything else for that matter.

As he thought about respect, he came to a stop, feeling a bit dizzy with all the practicing he’d been doing. Luckily for him, there was someone spying on him to help him keep his mind off the world spinning around him.

“Oh, hello there,” he offered, his tone as respectful and smooth as his father’s now that his voice had broken, “were you watching my dance? I hope you don’t mind that it’s not perfected yet.” He sat himself down, watching the little female. Somehow, it felt like he had seen the little girl before. Or maybe even a couple times before. The pride was large, but some areas were always populated by the same lions so it was entirely possible that their paths had crossed in the past.

But he wasn’t sure if he’d ever spoken to her before. Maybe he’d seen her at one of the shows? Whatever the case, he offered the little noble a polite bow of his head, grinning the whole while. “The name’s Borachio. Who are you?”

You’d think he’d know every member of the pride with all the gossiping he liked to do with the nobles.
 

[Princess_Feylin]

It was misleading, Pur thought, for Borachio to have such a coat. It made him look like he belonged among the nobility, even though he was the b*****d son of the king and the gods only knew who else. She would have liked to be angry at him for it, and maybe she was a little, but mostly she was impressed by the deep shade of purple and how the white markings looked like flower petals. Masculine flower petals.

Dancing? Was that what he was doing? She had been a little too absorbed in appreciating what he looked like to think about what he was actually doing. Besides, he had chosen to be a player, and that meant he would do all sorts of strange things. If she'd given it any thought at all, she would have guessed he was doing a strange player thing. Dancing kind of fell under that category, she supposed, though nobles danced, too.

"You call that dancing?" she said. She hadn't meant for it to come out as sharply as it did, but once it had she realized it was probably a good thing. His voice was so smooth and pleasant, she had to stay sharp or else she would start liking him even more. Worse - he might suspect that she liked him!

"I know who you are," she said, now choosing to put some coldness into her tone. She lost the coldness as she introduced herself, however, unconsciously wanting him to like her even if she wasn't supposed to like him. "I'm Pur'Jed. My father is Kuvunjwa Kivuli."

She wasn't sure what else to say. Anything clever which had been in her head had gotten lost on its way to her tongue. She hoped he would save her by saying something more, something she could talk to him about. But not something which would invite too much intimacy, because that would be improper, given the difference in their stations. And then she had an idea herself.

"How long will it be before you start playing important roles, do you think?"  

[Cajanic]

“Humph!” Borachio replied in a grunt, “Of course I call that dancing- that’s why it is!” He didn’t like the way she had reacted- did she think that he wasn’t a good dancer? Or maybe it was something else? Whatever had the sharp edge in her tone, it didn’t seem to be going away the more she spoke. As she introduced herself, he started to suspect that it was his vocation that had her up in arms, rather than the level of his dancing skill.

She probably thought she was better than him because she was a noble and he had decided to jump lower down in the ranks to be a player. Didn’t she know that he could have picked any job he wanted with his father being the king?

He had picked what made him happy. Maybe when she was older, she would understand that. Or… maybe not. Whatever the case, he wasn’t going to fret about it too much.

“It’s nice to meet you Pur’Jed, whose father is Kuvunjwa Kivuli. Do you mind if I just call you Pur? That’s an awful lot to say every time!” He teased brightly, offering her a cheesy smile. Just because she might not have liked him for some reason didn’t mean he couldn’t be nice to her!

He was going to be SO nice to her, she had to be friends with him.

“I get plenty of important roles!” He said, another huff escaping him, “though I guess I’ll start to be leading the plays when I’m a little bit more experienced. I haven’t been working at if very long, you know? I suppose it’s the same with any job. You gotta have experience before you can do anything really important. Like right now I’m working on my dancing, though apparently I need to work harder since it can’t even be recognized as dancing yet!” Chuckling, he flicked his tail, watching the younger lion.

“Would you like to learn some dance moves with me? I won’t tell anyone, I promise, and we’re all alone way out here.”
 

[Princess_Feylin]

Pur's expression was skeptical, but beneath that there was a smirk trying to escape. "You can call it whatever you like, but I'm pretty sure that's not dancing."

She looked down quickly at her paws. Had that been the wrong thing to say? Would he think she was trying to flirt with him? Oh, the agonies of being a not-quite-teenager! She glanced around, hoping for something to look at which wasn't him. She was too embarrassed to make proper eye contact.

Except that he was talking to her, and she got the distinct impression that he was teasing her. Sometimes her sisters, Nyota in particular, teased her about not having a sense of humor, and sometimes she didn't always realize when she was being teased, but in this instance she was reasonably sure that was what was happening. Teasing...was good she guessed?

"Um. That's what my family calls me," she said. Then she reminded herself sternly that nobility didn't say "um." "Does everyone call you Borachio? That's even longer than my name."

She wondered why he kept huffing. Did it mean he was mad, or just exasperated? Or was there something wrong with the way he breathed? She didn't think it was that last one, because surely she would have heard about something like that if it was true. Perhaps it was more acting, and he was trying to make himself seem more offended, or more obviously offended or something.

Pur's jaw simply dropped when he asked if she'd like to learn some dance moves with him. Who did he think she was? For that matter, who did he think he was? The king's son, yes, but he'd chosen to be a player. Nobility didn't dance with players. Particularly not when they were alone, as he'd pointed out. Her eyes widened and she backed up a step, suddenly worried, though about what she was unsure.

"I...Do players do the same dances as nobles? Why would players have to know how to dance anyway?" She asked the questions quickly.  

[Cajanic]

Borachio was a little stunned, like he had just been smacked in the gut. Wasn’t dancing? But he had gotten so good with all his practicing! It seemed suddenly unnerving to think that other animals didn’t see what he was doing as dancing. Or.. was she just being mean for the sake of being mean? It was possible she did think he was good, but was jealous.

Either way, it slightly lessened his mood.

Ah, she hadn’t caught his joke. That was alright- he wasn’t very good at jokes. When it came to the plays they did, he was better at acting like a fool than saying witty things to make the other lions laugh. Really, he wasn’t surprised that she completely missed what he had been trying to poke fun at with the whole naming of the father thing and thinking he’d have to say that every time. Perhaps it was better if he just stay away from jokes. Now he’d brought his own name to attention. “Well, yes,” he said thoughtfully, “that is what everyone calls me. I don’t really think my name lends itself well to nicknames, do you? Bor sounds too gruff… chio is a bit girly in my opinion. I don’t know. I suppose if you can think of something else to call me, that isn’t an insult, you may. But I don’t think Borachio is too hard to remember, right?”

Really, he liked his name. It seemed different from the names he had heard from the other members of the pride. Unique screamed Borachio.

Or maybe his parents had burped when coming up with his name and decided to just leave it how it came out.

Tilting his head, he smiled. “You don’t have to know any dances when you’re a noble- you learn them because it’s fun. I grew up living a noble life, you know, so I know we danced and had fun, same as anyone else. You don’t have to worry about not looking like the nobility you are- I promise I’m not going to tell anyone.” Like anyone would care, but he knew how the upper crust was. All about image.
 

[Princess_Feylin]

Too young and too self-absorbed to notice the effect of her words on her conversation partner, Pur'Jed was only aware that something had changed in Borachio's manner. Maybe it was something she'd said. Or done. Not that she'd done too much, and she hadn't thought she'd said anything bad. She'd only been joking a bit. Pur was usually very careful not to say things which would get her in trouble, though in truth she did take a certain amount of pleasure in reminding people of lower status of how much more important she was. But that wasn't something she thought of as wrong. She was confused.

But Borachio seemed not to have minded too much, whatever it was. Maybe it'd been nothing to do with her anyway. The thought and his remarks on his name put her more at ease. She even hazarded a smile as he tried out various nicknames for her to demonstrate how poorly they suited him. By the time he offered her the opportunity to come up with an alternative, her mind was already racing to try to figure one out. The only thing which came to mind was Ra, or maybe Rachi, but neither of those seemed quite right either, and she didn't want to sound stupid by suggesting them.

"I think you're right. Borachio suits you. I was just wondering. Um. Trying to make conversation." She could have killed herself for letting an "um" slip in. That particular syllable was one of the basest things a noble could utter, according to Pur's mother, who was Pur's main source for knowledge and tutelage when it came to all things noble.

"And I did know that you grew up noble. I never really had much opportunity to talk to you or your siblings, but I knew about you." Who in the pride didn't know about Bwana's illegitimate cubs? Which reminded her that she really probably shouldn't be spending time with this one, either. He was the king's son, but he'd chosen to become a player, and that meant she really shouldn't be spending too much time in his company. She could watch him perform, but that was it. It was so unfair that he was also so handsome.

"I appreciate the offer, but I should really be going. My mother will worry if I'm away too long. Besides, I'm not a very good dancer." Which was perfectly true. It took long hours of practice for her to remember the forms of even the most basic dances, and to train her muscles to remember them in the correct time and order. She was grateful that she had some time before she would be expected to dance in public with other lions.  

[Cajanic]

“Aw, that’s too bad,” Borachio hummed lightly, watching the female with a gentle, however teasing smile, “I’d like to judge for myself whether or not you’re a good dancer. You’re always going to be your own worst critic, after all! But don’t worry- I won’t keep you any longer. I still have practicing to do, and I don’t want to keep you away from your parents for too much longer.” He knew nobles could be a bit stiff, particularly about their own rules. It seemed like they all wanted to be kings and queens. Since they couldn’t take the throne from his father, they were just going to have to settle for being the rulers of their own dens.

Which, really, seemed to suit them just fine.

Borachio didn’t know what kind of parents she had, if they were nice or really strict, but he thought it better not to test things. Anyway, it would probably end up bad if she got caught with one of the illegitimate children of Bwana. It wasn’t something everyone had grown to enjoy the thought of. Still, he didn’t care. Kal was his mom, regardless of her thoughts on the matter, and the opinion of those others didn’t matter. Not about his personal life, anyway. The only things he wanted to hear from the other members of the pride were praises for his theatrical skills.

“You’re always welcome to come back some time,” he ventured after a moment, his soft eyes still on the smaller lion, “maybe we can dance together another day! Or you can show me one of your favorite things to do, instead, since you’ve caught me doing mine. That’s only fair, right?” He wouldn’t be unhappy seeing her again- she seemed innocent enough not to judge him too harshly on his blood line.

Even if she was judging him, she was pretty good at hiding it.

In any case, the purple lion offered his lioness companion a respectful bow of his head, hoping the gesture would show he still had some, small smidge of respect left for the noble class. They were fun to gossip with, in any case.

She would probably grow up to be fun to gossip with, too.

“Say hi to your mom for me,” he added as he turned to pick up his practice once more. Whether she did or not was entirely up to her, naturally, but he couldn’t well say nothing and have her mother thinking he didn’t want her to know her daughter had spoken to him, right? Right. Sure. That sounded right.
 

[Princess_Feylin]

Pur returned his smile because it would have been rude not to, but she was honestly feeling very confused. She had been raised to believe that Bwana's b*****d children really weren't suitable companions, mostly because of the circumstances surrounding their birth, but she had always assumed there was something wrong with them which would be readily apparent as a result of their illegitimacy. Borachio seemed like a perfectly nice lion, if flippant, and there were worse things than flippancy.

"Perhaps I will," she said, again falling back on good manners and making sure to use the oh-so-crucial perhaps. She had learned pretty early on that you could make any sort of promise you wanted to make and as long as there was a perhaps somewhere in it you could go back on it at any time by claiming that you'd only said "perhaps." Not that Pur had plans to make a habit out of lying or making false promises, but she didn't think she was likely to come back to dance with Borachio, even if he was very good-looking and easy to like.

"I will be sure to do that," she said, meaning that she would pass along a greeting from him to her mother. That one was just a flat-out lie though. She didn't think her mother really needed to know that she'd been down here. It would only upset her, and Pur could see for herself that it had not been an appropriate action on her part.

"It was nice to meet you," she offered, dipping a quick, much-practiced curtsy before departing.

She wanted to scamper home and evaluate every nuance of the conversation, having found herself in instant crush with the king's son, but scampering wasn't ladylike and she wanted to maintain the appearance of being ladylike, even if it didn't seem to be so important to Borachio. It might be, deeper down than even he was aware of. Oh, crushes were so hard! Fortunately, she would grow out of this one.