A good stretch of time had passed since Bakari had learned to accept his love of his mate as true. Now when he looked at her he longer hid his affection, and the contempt he had felt at one time was now an awkward sort of love.
It wasn't by any chance that the couple were found down by the stage, sitting aloft with others of their class. It was something that Keina seemed to enjoy, and these days, whatever brought a smile to her face was what brought a smile to his own.
Sitting as poised as a statue, Bakari yawned into his paw and looked elsewhere. Plays held no great fascination for him, not like they did for her, but when he turned to see the great buffoon on stage he couldn't hide a snicker. "Seems a little too good at playing the part, don't you think?" He murmured, leaning in close to his mate.
Kean fanned her face dramatically, wiping away at tears that rolled as easily as her laughter. Once the scene was over she cheered along with those of a lesser class, despite the odd looks given to her by other Nobles. Bunch of stuffed furs! Couldn't they see the majesty of it all?!
"Hrm?" Turning to Bakari, she widened her eyes and turned back to the stage with a softer smile. "I think he was just having fun, is all. Even if he is stupid, stupid lions can have fun from time to time, right?" When she turned to him, it was if she knew what he was thinking. "We don't have to keep coming if you don't like it. There are plenty of other activities to occupy us here, you know."
Bakari snorted, turning his hard gaze back to the stage. It was being cleaned, props were moving in, the audience was...generally being themselves, as far as he was concerned. The idiotic masses of the lower classes; it was almost as thrilling to watch them go about their lives as it was to watch the players on the stage.
"I didn't - Keina, stop putting words into my mouth." He growled under his breath, turning a steely gaze her way. The absolute love and adoration passed his way from her, however, stopped him in his tracks, and he had to turn his darkened cheeks elsewhere. "What would you have us do? Hunt, tinker, or any of the other menial tasks that are around us? I would not sully my paws with such an act."
Tsking, she placed her paw on top of his and batted her large, chubby eyelashes at him. She was leaning in far too close, schmoozing it up as best she could now that he was in a position that he couldn't very well run away from. "Aww, come on, sweetie, I wasn't doin' nothin', honest." Catching his attention with her common talk, she giggled and snuggled up to him as the next act began.
"What I meant was something that involves just the two of us..at home...in the den..." She waggled her eyebrows and smiled.
Even if he'd come to accept her affections, and even reciprocate them, that didn't make public affection any easier for him to bear. Bakari seized up as if he'd been paralyzed and leaned away from her, forcing himself not to snap out at her in the middle of a rather tragic scene down on the stage. Keeping his voice down to a whisper, he snapped, "Get off!" to no avail. She was latched on tighter than moss to a tree.
Still, what she said next caught him more than anything else. He furrowed his brows, mushed up his mouth and looked at her in earnest. "We can do nothing of the sort. Things like...like that will bring about cubs, and I..." Dropping his voice down another peg, he leaned in, "my blood is unclean and you've spoken nothing of yours. I will not have my position tarnished by common cubs."
Sighing, Keina snuggled up closer and turned her head to get a better look at him. “Look,” she whispered, “what you see is what you get with me, so that’s a little less to worry about, right?” Her father had been the teals of her pelt, and her mother the indigo. There wasn’t much else to talk about there. “And if you’re bloodline isn’t as Noble as you want…well, so what? S’not like we’d be the only ones to have cubs that are a little less purple.” The Queen herself wasn’t all that purple, and neither were some of her offspring! Why, even that one Noble family, the snobby ones, they’d had a few that weren’t all that.
“I would just rather not risk it if I can help it.” Granted, the thought of cubs of his own had crossed his mind once or twice before, but it was never something that Bakari had wanted to dwell on. Should they turn out red like his brothers and sisters he would have to find something to DO with them. He would not abide them to stay, at least, to stay and claim his blood.
“But we could try, yeah?” Keina pleaded. “I want to be a mama, Bakari. Just one litter; one little, bitty litter and then we can stop if they don’t look right, okay?” She wanted to feel them in her tummy like the other females, and have little ones run to her when they were scared. It was what she wanted most in the world. “It’ll be fun to make them, and it won’t be like watching a play, so we can at least forget about what they’ll look like for a while, right? Just for a while?”
Would it be so bad, to give her what she asked for? She rarely asked for anything of real worth, and it would get her off his back for a while, as well as promise that he had an least one heir to continue his name. Bakari looked to Keina and snorted. “Fine. ONE litter, no more. And should any cubs be born without purple they will be taken as far from the pride as possible, understand? There will be none of common descent in my name, understand?”
“Oh yes, yes, Bakari! I understand!” Keina exlclaimed, loud enough to ruin the mood for most viewers. She tossed her paws around her neck and rubbed her cheek against his. “We’ll be the best parents, you’ll see! And our cubs will be the best cubs, so none of them will have to leave. We’ll make the Nobles, the King and the fae themselves proud.” When she pulled back all she could do was laugh. “This is going to be wonderful! A whole new chapter of our lives!”
(WC: 1131)