Son of a Legend

Part 30: Reason to Stay

"What? No! Mkali, I don't know what I was thinking when I asked you to be my king! I can't ask you to step down as leader of the guard!" Taji says to him.
"Good thing you don't have to," Mkali responds.
Taji gasps. "You'd really do that? For me?" Taji asks skeptically.
Mkali smiles at her. "Of course I would! There's not a thing in this world I wouldn't do for you."
Taji blushes slightly, but then she sees a flaw in Mkali's idea. "If you step down, then who will replace you?"
"Oh, that's easy. Koda will."
"You think that he can take that responsibility on?" Taji questions.
"I'm sure of it," Mkali answers. He smiles at Taji. "Shall we go tell everyone the good news?"
"Yes, I think we should," Taji answers.
Mkali and Taji walk back to the tree hand in hand.
When they get back to the tree, everyone is sitting around a campfire outside of it.
"There you two are!" Rani says when she sees Mkali and Taji.
"We didn't want to put a damper on your parade, but we need to go back to the Pridelands in 3 days," Vitani tells Mkali and Misuli.
"I'm not. I'm staying here," Mkali responds. "Taji asked me to be her king, and I accepted."
"Haha, very funny," Vitani says sarcastically. "Mkali, you have a duty to the Pridelands. You're the leader of the Lion Guard, so we need to go back in three days."
"Actually, it wasn't a joke, I did actually ask him to be my king," Taji chimes in.
"And I accepted, which means that I will have to step down as leader of the Lion Guard. I already have a replacement in mind,"
"And who would that be?" Vitani asks her son.
"Koda," Mkali says. "He's been my second in command for 5 years, he and I have similar physical attributes, he did an amazing job as interim leader when I was hurt, he beat me in a fight when nobody else could, and he caught one of the killers when I couldn't. So Koda is probably more qualified to lead the guard than I am anyway."
Vitani is obviously not pleased about what she's just heard. She scoffs at her son's words. "The Elders chose you for a reason! Do you even want to be like your father!?" Vitani immediately regrets what she said. Mkali is hurt by what his mother just asked. Everyone gasps at Vitani's words.
Mkali finally speaks up after a moment of awkward silence. "Dad would want me to do what makes me happy. Once upon a time, I know that the same was true for you, but is it still?"
With that, Mkali walks off. Taji follows him.
Vitani is disgusted with herself. "How could I say that to him!?"
Rani walks over and pats Vitani on the shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up. Being a single parent is hard, even if your kids are all grown up. That being said, he does have the right to make his own decisions, so you're going to have to respect that,"
Vitani nods. "You're right. Is it okay if I go for a walk to clear my head?"
"Of course! No need to ask me," Rani replies. With that, Vitani walks off. After walking for what feels like an hour, she stops.
"Kion, I messed up," she says aloud.
Kion's spirit materializes out of thin air. "I'm here. What's the matter?" He asks her.
"I said some things I shouldn't have to Mkali. I feel awful." She tells her late husband.
Kion nods. "What exactly did you say?" Kion asks.
"I said,'Do you even want to be like your father!?'" She says sadly.
"Ooh, yeah, probably shouldn't do that," Kion says. "Just keep in mind that you're his mother, and at the end of the day, he'll forgive you and move on from it. What exactly led you to say that to him?"
"Taji apparently proposed to him, so he wants to stay here and be king with her and abandon his role as leader of the guard," Vitani says.
Kion laughs a little bit at what Vitani said. "'Abandon' doesn't sound like the right word. I'm sure that you've heard this already today, but if he wants to make that kind of decision, he should be allowed to." Kion says.
Vitani sighs. "I just don't want him changing everything about his life for some lioness,"
With this, Kion bursts out laughing. He is tearing up, and on his knees, he is laughing so hard.
"Great! Glad you think that me caring for my son is sooo funny!" Vitani scoffs sarcastically.
"No, it's not that! It just that you have no idea what it's like to be a male lion Mkali's age and be in love! When I was his age, there wasn't a single thing I wouldn't do to be with you! Male lions Mkali's age will literally change everything about themselves if they need to when they are in love," Kion explains to her. "If Zira had waited a day longer to initiate her plan, then she might have succeeded because I would have been on a journey searching every corner of this Earth for you."
"Wow, I didn't know that you were willing to do that," Vitani says.
"Yeah. But back to the Mkali thing. Does he have a replacement in mind?" Kion asks his wife.
"Yeah, Koda," Vitani answers.
"Oh, okay. The Elders have been talking, and they're all in agreement that if Koda were to become permanent leader of the guard that it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. However, it's a rule that if a member of any Lion Guard were to take over after the leader steps down, then they'd have to fight. A sort of 'last hora' if you will," Kion explains.
"Wait, really? You didn't have to do that, so how do you know that?" Vitani asks.
"Just trading stories with the former leaders. The last time that it happened was with Uru's Lion Guard," Kion explains. Kion starts to fade slowly.
"Love you, Vitani," Kion says to Vitani.
"Love you too, Kion," She replies.
Kion is fading slower than normal, so he decides to say one last thing to Vitani before she walks away.
"Vitani! One last thing!" He shouts after her. Vitani stops and turns around. "Have Mkali use my training regime," they smile at each other, then Kion fades away fully.
_______________________________________
There's Part 30 for you guys. There's probably only going to be a few more parts, then I'm either going to make the story about Kion and Vitani as kids and between the time skips, or I can make another AU for TLK/TLG. Let me know which one you want in the comments. I can't thank you guys enough for reading! Have a good night (or day)!