The Lion King IV: Kopa's Story (COMPLETED)

Chapter 47

"So you saw everything right? I haven't completely lost my mind." Vitani swats me with her paw and pulls away from our embrace.

"I saw most of it." She affirms and looks at me like she never had before. "I always knew who you were. It only took you this long to know it yourself."

"How?"

"Because you are the one male I didn't want to pummel." She shrugs and I believe her, though I was expecting a much more intense reply.

"I love you."

"I love you, too." She smiles and licks my lips before she swats my head hard.

"Christ!"

"You're a royal."

"And hitting me was your way of breaking the news to me?"

"Salama. Sultan now will have more reason-"

"That is never going to happen."

"But-"

"It will never happen. Unless of time of a great war and that is never going to happen. Not in the Pride Lands."

"Not while you're King you mean." She grins widely and I feel my heart touch my stomach. Me? A King?

"Let's tackle one thing at a time. Simba will never believe me." And it's true. The last thing Simba needed was another reason to remember his dead son...well the son he thought was dead.

"Then we'll convince him." She assures me with hopeful eyes.

"I don't want to be king." I admit and I look away when the hope in her eyes flickers away.

"And you think I want to be queen? It's your birthright."

"Vitani," I pause and look at the lilac that swirls in her blue eyes. There was still some hope in them. The same hope after we lost our son. If my being king was something she had hope for then I suppose it would be a great thing. We did end up having five wonderful cubs because of her hope. "We can try to convince him. Even if he doesn't believe us at least I'll know who I am."

She nods and comes in for another embrace. This one is long and timid. I can feel her breathing and her light purrs against me.

"Did Zira really do this to you then?" She asks after some more time of us in each others embrace. It was starting to get colder now and I didn't know if it was because of the water under our paws or because of the distance in her voice that rattled my bones.

"Baby," I begin and try to pull from her but she clings closer to me.

"She wasn't my mother. I know that. But, there's still a part of me that feels maybe...that darkness that was inside of her she...somehow passed to me."

"Vitani, you-"

"Please let me finish." She says in a whisper and I silence myself and listen.

"I hated her after what happened. I wanted so much to happen to her, to the pride, to me. I just wanted to feel whole again. And then...I met you and it's like that emptiness was filled again. Like I was the same cub inside. You've been my guardian since the moment we met all those years ago." She looked up then, her eyes swimming with new tears. Tears that I knew she had been wanting to spill since the moment she thought who I was. The lion I am.

"You're everything to me Tanabi. Everything. My whole heart."

~ ~ ~

"I knew it! I knew we were really brothers!" Mheetu says and engulfs me in a tight hug.

"You'd be my uncle." I correct and pull away from his intense hold.