[prp] Don't expect me (Jua x Kin)

[Lethrossen]

Being raised in a litter of seven other cubs had given Kin a great appreciation for solitude. It wasn't that she hated other lions or socializing... but she really loved her me time. So she'd spent her days traveling, moving from place to place... what else was there after the swamps had been no more? And it wasn't like she'd given up on her family or abandoned them or anything... she'd simply grown up. And that was what adults did, right? They moved on with their lives. Still... you could only spend so much time by yourself before you needed to spend time with someone else... and honestly? She'd heard some interesting news over the past few moons. More and more it sounded like her mother had come to settle in the Pridelands. So Kin had let her paws carry her until the looming rock was on the horizon. It was always a beautiful sight to behold, no matter how many times one saw it.

She had passed the boarder some time ago, happy that the guards were easy going and the members mainly friendly. She was debating what exactly she would even say to her mother... was a visit at her age a strange or normal occurrence? Her tail flicked as she hummed to herself, thinking deeply about it. Her eyes had slowly drifted from the area immediately ahead of her and instead had lost focus, now aimed at her paws.  

[[Eskimo]]

Meanwhile, Jua'johari had just woken up from a nap. He wasn't the type of lion to let sleep linger, but there was a hint of it left in his gaze. With so much tension and change in the Pridelands, Jua often found himself more tired than usual. But a little nap always cleared the mental fog away. Sometimes the emotional fog, too. For a little while...

Shaking the last bits of sleep from his mane, the male continued his walk. The longer he walked, the more self-conscious he began to feel. What if someone noticed him taking a stroll? Would it look too leisurely? And if it did, would that be good or bad? Probably bad given the circumstances of the pride...yeah, for sure... But it could look good too, right? It could make him look, uh...confident! Sure. That sounded kind of cool. Huh, cool...maybe he looked cool? That would be--

Jua did a double-take at the horizon line, struck by savanna-colored hair and stark white socks. It was a lioness he didn't recognize. Not that he was well acquainted a lot of the lionesses in the pride or anything...ok, he knew heaps of lionesses, but he didn't know know them, it wasn't like he was some kind of a--

"FfFFfffff--" he breathed through tooth and lip, frustrated with his own self. What was the point in arguing with his own self?! Guh, he was doing it again, wasn't he. Why couldn't he just--...

...Oh, no...

...The lioness...was walking towards him...?! Or maybe he was just directly in her path. OK, EITHER WAY, OH NO.

He looked in every direction in rapid succession as if to discover some convenient distraction, but found nothing, and so fidgeted on the spot for some moments before he decided, for whatever unknown reason, to look directly at the lioness.

Lethrossen

 

[Lethrossen]

In the end it would just end up being whatever came out of her mouth, right? Maybe there wasn't a huge need to overthink what she would say... heck, she might not even run into her mother. That settled it then, no use in worrying! She smiled and her gaze shot upwards again only to widen when she was met the eyes of a similar color, boring into her. She slowed, the male wasn't too far ahead of her and ... yeah, he was definitely staring. Her gait was down to a molasses crawl now, her gaze slowly shifting as she turned and looked behind her thinking that maybe he wasn't staring at her. But... there were no other lions or lionesses remotely close to her.

Huh.

She'd come to a stop at this point, turning back to look at him. She frowned, a little uncomfortable and worried. Did she know him? Or maybe he knew her? She took a few more steps towards him, obviously unsure. "Uum... a-are you... are you alright?" She called out, wondering if maybe there was just something wrong with him?  

[[Eskimo]]

"Yeah," said his voice in a cracking squeak. He cleared his throat, "Uh, yeah, I'm fine," he said normally, "how are...you?" he asked.

Okay.

OOOOookay.

He just asked that. Why on EARTH did he just ask how she was doing? That was not the typical reply. This wasn't a hey-how-are-you conversation between two people. She had clearly been asking about why he was standing around like a zebra in a cheetah's sight line. Now he just looked stupid. Definitely felt stupid. She was probably thinking he was stupid. Oh, man...how to recover from this...was recovery even possible?

"I mean--it's--I'm--..." he stammered, then something in him seemed to collapse and he started to laugh. When he finished, he didn't seem as nervous anymore. "I'm Jua'johari," he said.

Lethrossen

 

[Lethrossen]

She blinked, a little surprised when he returned her own question back. She glanced down at herself, wondering for a moment if she looked in a similar state. As she looked back up to meet his eyes and answer she was met with an intensely surprised look from the male. ... Had he not meant to ask? She opened her mouth to reply but then he was stammering past some sort of explanation and diving right into laughter! Her eyes widened and she found herself taking a tentative step back...

But after a few seconds she found herself laughing along with him, enjoying the sound. "Jua'johari... I am quite wonderful today, thank you for asking." Her smile was slightly teasing. "I'm Kinyago..." She looked around and then moved forward, head ducking low and her voice dropping to something closer to a whisper. "I'm here on a mission." She added, secretively.

[Eskimo]

 

[[Eskimo]]

Jua flushed at the teasing smile, suddenly feeling quite bashful. Well, even more so than before. He shuffled his paw and smiled crookedly, looking back and forth between her and his surroundings more often than he normally would.

"Kinya-go--," his voice cracked.

Oh GODS.

He cleared his throat twice, once more to make sure he was safe from that ever happening again, and then casually added, "That's a nice name," as though nothing had happened. He watched her move closer, hairs standing on end and shoulders tensing--not from threat, but because--well--she was--cough--...

"A mission?" he echoed under his breath, caught up in the secretive air. "What kind? Are you...allowed to tell...?" he asked. Ugh, that was stupid, maybe she was just being silly and here he was sounding serious. Was he sounding too serious? Stupid, he probably sounded like a total airhead, she probably thought has an idiot. MAN! Wow, her eyes--MAN, he was stupid!

Lethrossen