Lion King One Shots

A Queen's Day Off...or maybe not

Sarabi let out a sigh as she breathed in the crisp morning air and made her way out of the den. It was another beautiful morning and today there was nothing but a day of relaxing that lay ahead of her. It wasn't often the Queen had time to relax with both hunting and other duties to take care of. Not only that, but she also had another job, one of the most important ones and that was taking care of her son, the Prince of Priderock. He had grown up so much over the past few months, becoming stronger and more playful each day. His sense of adventure and curiosity would be the end of her though. Another lioness walked up to her and disrupted her train of thought. "Morning my Queen," she said as she bowed. Sarabi rolled her eyes, "Sarafina, stop it," she said. Sarafina laughed, "of course my Queen," she teased. Sarafina and Sarabi were best friends and had been for as long as they both could remember. Most animals in the Pridelands called Sarabi for Queen, all except for Mufasa, Sarafina, Nala and Simba. "Are you done? Cause I was gonna head out," Sarabi stated with a smile. "Fine fine, let's go," Sarafina replied as she started going down the steps that would lead them into the Pridelands.

***

The pair had been lying in the grass for a while and the sun was starting to get hot, too hot for them to lay out in the open and so they both stood up and headed towards the waterhole. "It's nice that you were able to take some time off today, I missed you," Sarafina said as she broke the comfortable silence between them. Sarabi lifted her head from the water, "I am too, it's been way too long since we properly hung out," she said. Although the lionesses saw each other almost every day for the hunts as well as at other times, they were never together just to be together as it was always because they had something to do. So for once, it was nice to finally be able to do nothing together. They continued chatting but were interrupted by the majordomo approaching. "Good afternoon madam," Zazu said as he landed in front of her. "Oh hello Zazu, what is it?" she asked. "Yes well you told me to inform you if the cubs left and they have left Priderock now," he said. Sarabi sighed, although it was her day off, she never had a day off from being a mother. "Ok thank you. Just make sure they don't venture too far off, but no need to babysit them," she told Zazu. The hornbill nodded and flew off. "Those two, I can only imagine what sort of trouble they have planned," Sarafina said with a chuckle.

***

The cicadas were chirping, the air was dry and there was a light breeze coming in now and then. Although resting, Sarabi was constantly aware of her surroundings. Her ears twitching and flicking in every possible direction, listening to everything. But mostly, she was relaxing as she knew it was a quiet day with not much going on. However, her peace and quiet was disrupted by the incoming sound of running paws. She turned her ears to the direction of the sound and heard little voices too. A smile appeared on the Queen's face and before she knew it someone had jumped onto her, resulting in her letting out a small oof. That certain someone was the Prince. "Hey mom! Whatcha doing?" Simba asked, sliding down from her and laying his head down in front of her. Sarabi opened an eye. "I'm relaxing. What are you two up to?" she replied. "You're sleeping? That's so boring! Why don't you play like us?" Simba continued to question. "Because we're tired," she answered as raised herself up slightly. She could see that Nala was also here, as predicted, and was talking to her mother, Sarafina. Like their mothers, Simba and Nala were best friends, but they were also betrothed, a concept neither of the cubs fully understood just yet. Sarabi smiled at Nala as she looked over at her. She was so similar to Simba, yet also very different. Although they were both very adventurous and such curious cubs, Nala had an extra added bonus of maturity which made her much more responsible than Simba ever could be. She also knew how to put Simba in his place, literally and figuratively. She was a strong lioness, something she must have inherited from her mother and Sarabi knew she would be a great Queen some day. All of a sudden she noticed Simba had approached her again and was leaning up against her chest. "Mom, what are you thinking about?" he asked. He looked up at her as he hugged her. "You. And Nala too," she replied smiling as she looked down at him. Sarabi gently licked his nose so that Simba sprang back as he wiped his nose. "MOM! Ewww!" he exclaimed. Sarabi shook her head and smiled to herself. "Come on Simba, let's go!" Nala said as she ran off. She was quickly followed by Simba who ran after her. "Be back before sundown!" she called after him. Sarabi and Sarafina looked at each other and laughed. Yeah, they never quite had a day off with those two running around, but they couldn't be happier about it.