Twitterpated

[Ajax]

Ajax was lovesick and he knew it.

Ever since he had arrived at the Dawnseeker's camp, his eyes had been drawn to one particular person. A large cat, golden furred and from what he judged she would be the same size as him one day. She was beautiful and her name was Kiara. She had to be another lion like he was, not like the smaller lions from this far away place called "Africa". It hadn't taken him long to fall head over heels for her and yet he hadn't managed to work up the courage to speak two words to her. Truly, he was a failure.Instead, Ajax had simply taken to mooning over her, following her with his gaze whenever he spotted her in the camp and wishing he had the stones to speak up.

And today would be the day! Ajax had decided that he was through with waiting and hoping perhaps she would notice him. No, he was going to seize the initiative! He had rehearsed and rehearsed what he was going to try and say to her, introduce himself perhaps tell her a joke to make her laugh, maybe he'd bring her a nice juicy piece of meat to make her feel special. No one could say he hadn't thought this through. He wanted to make the best first impression he could so maybe, just maybe, she'd give him a chance.

So it was with that in mind that he was walking through the camp like a man on a mission, a haunch of reindeer clamped in his jaws, and glancing everywhere to see if he could spot Kiara. Instead, he saw the brown-furred lioness who seemed to be by her side more often than not and was now quite obviously pregnant. He regretted that he had been too focused on Kiara that this lioness's name had completely escaped him.

"'Scuse me, miss." he said, dropping the piece of meat at his paws so he could speak to her "Is MIss Kiara around the camp today?"

[Shani]

Shani was laying on her back near the council's cabins, the sun filtering through the trees warming her fur. While normally she'd be happy to have some down time, lately the lioness felt like she was getting cave fever.

An ear twitched when she heard heavy pawsteps draw near, the scent of the large lion Ajax, mixed with the wafting smell of food greeted her nose.

"'Scuse me, miss. Is MIss Kiara around the camp today?"

A chuckle rose in her throat as she rolled on her side, careful to not put pressure on her belly.
"She left to go hunting. If you happen to find her, can you let her know her girlfriend isn't happy with being left in camp."
Letting out a sigh, she continued,
" 'Shani you need to rest. Shani you can't go hunting, you're pregnant. Too much stress is bad for the cubs.'
I swear, everyone is acting like the slightest wrong movement will cause me to keel over. I mean, it's annoying but I'm used to people treating me like a cub, comes with being blind. But come on, at this point I can't even go for a walk outside the camp without everyone having a fit."

[Ajax]

"Girlfriend?"

He sounded like a kitten, the way his voice squeaked the word. Ajax was glad he had rested his prize at his paws otherwise he would have likely dropped it along with his jaw at that piece of information. Now it made sense why Kiara seemed to hang around with this particular lioness so much, hard as it was to swallow.

Figuring she knew his intentions now, he immediately began backpeddling. He knew from experience that a heavily pregnant lioness would be hormonal and it wouldn't take a lot for them to snap and then claws and teeth would follow.

"I-I had no idea! Really I didn't!" his mouth running away with him "If I'd've known I'd never've, I swear on my honor as a lion! I thought--well, doesn't matter what I thought but I'm not that kind of lion!"

Now he seemed to look between Shani and her belly and back to her face as if wondering if that wasn't the only thing that he had misunderstood. If Kiara was her girlfriend, then who's cubs was she pregnant with? Was Kiara...he knew some lions didn't always agree with the gender they were born with but her lack of mane had convinced him that Kiara was in fact female. Was she maneless? He knew that happened sometimes, it would explain her size even compared to the other African lions.

Spirits, his head and his heart now hurt.

[Shani]

"I-I had no idea! Really I didn't! If I'd've known I'd never've, I swear on my honor as a lion! I thought--well, doesn't matter what I thought but I'm not that kind of lion!"

An ear twitched as she listened to him stammer and stumble. It didn't take very long for her to realize he was interested in Kiara. 

Part of her felt annoyed, and tempted to give him a quick slap to tell him to back off. But thankfully, the more rational part of her mind managed to talk down her jealousy and hormones, for the time being. Maybe the pride this lion came from didn't have lionesses getting together. Besides, judging by his backpedaling, he had realized his mistake already.

Instead of swiping at him, she merely let out a purr in amusement at his reaction.
"Calm down will you? Like you said, you didn't know."
She carefully rolled herself into a sitting position, shuffling her paws around to comfortably make room for her extra baggage.
"Besides, I can't really blame you, Kiara is an amazing lioness. Agreed to help me co-mom these little nuggets,"
she flicked her belly with the tip of her tail,
"since it's probably the only time we'll have cubs, unless she makes the same... "oops" that I did."

Shani gave a small tilt of her head, once again noticing the smell of food,
"You plan to give that to her I take it?" she asked.

[Ajax]

Ajax took a breath at her admonishment of him to calm down. She wasn't as mad as he expected her to be but he imagined she still was not happy to know someone else had eyes for her girlfriend. Especially if they had decided they were going to raise however many cubs she had together. He couldn't help the jealousy he felt, not only did she have the lioness he was mooning over but a family on the way too.

"You have it." he offered, sliding the haunch of meat until it bumped against her paw. It was only now that he noticed the odd glaze of her eyes and came to the conclusion she couldn't see very well if at all "You've little'uns on the way and when my Ma was expectin' she could eat a whole mammoth, bones an' all!"

Ajax had seen enough younger siblings come and go to know how to handle a pregnant lioness. Besides, it wasn't her fault that he wound up disappointed. Unceremoniously, he flopped down beside her, deciding that since his plans had went up in smoke there was nothing better for him to do. Maybe if she was finished he might even get a few mouthfuls of reindeer.

"Name's Ajax, by the way." he introduced himself, feeling perhaps she should at least know his name "'Least that's what everyone here calls me. Can't pronounce my real name right, ya see."