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Parents' First Meeting
by Pirate Turner
"So, you two," the lioness questioned, her eyes cutting sternly into the two animals who should have been her prey, "rescued and raised my son?"
"Yup!" Pumbaa replied eagerly. He beamed proudly.
Timon walked boldly out from his hiding place between the warthog's front legs. He pointed his thumbs at himself proudly. "That would indeed be us, Your Royal Majesty," he said with a sweeping bow. He continued as he straightened up to his full height. "We saw him there that fateful day," he resumed, spanning a hand out at the distance, "buzzards pecking at the little fellow, and we knew we had to save him, so we took our lives in our hands," he clenched his hands into tight fists, "and charged!" He pumped both fists into the air.
"Yep, yep! Bowling for buzzards!" Pumbaa's head bobbed enthusiastically up and down.
"We cleared those buzzards out and rescued your tiny son!" Timon's hands clenched before his furry chest, and his eyes shimmered with the unshed tears that filled them. "He was the most precious thing we'd ever seen, and how any one could be so cruel, so vicious as to hurt sweet, little, innocent Simba -- Well, just let me at 'im!" He swung his fists wildly, jumping up and down.
"Timon," Pumbaa, always the voice of reason, interjected, "Scar's dead now."
"And he'd better stay dead if he knows what's good for him!"
Sarabi interrupted the small animals with a gentle clearing of her throat. "You're both males."
"Yep!" Pumbaa's head remained held proud and high, but Timon slid a foot backwards as he mumbled an affirmation considerably slower. The merekat didn't like the turn this meeting was taking at all!
"And you," Sarabi continued, eyeing Timon scrutinizing, "you dress in women's clothing."
"Yes," he squeaked out, plastering himself against Pumbaa's legs, his grass skirt shaking.
"Mom -- " Simba warned softly. He'd stayed out of their conversation so far, but he'd not have his mother eating his adopted fathers!
"It's okay, Simba," Sarabi gently assured him as Timon grasped the moment to scurry on top of Pumbaa's head, grip his ears, and try to get him to move away to which he stubbornly refused. "They may have a strange lifestyle, but they saved you, my son, saved you, cared for you, and loved you as though you were their own."
As she had been speaking, Sarabi had rose up on her hind legs. Timon cowered before her, but that fear slowly dissolved as Sarabi wrapped her front legs around he and Pumbaa and hugged them close. Warmth spread through them until Timon finally melted in her embrace, Pumbaa having done so long ago.
"Thank you," Sarabi purred, "little friends, and welcome to the family."
Simba smiled broadly at the love shining on his parents' faces and sighed in a mixture of relief and dismay. He was glad his mother had welcomed his fathers into their family, but he wished his real father could see his family now.
"He sees," a gentle voice spoke beside the new King as an even gentler hand laid upon his massive shoulder. "He knows," he quieted the next questions that bubbled up in Simba so fast that the young lion could not hope to be able to ask them all, "and he loves you."
Simba turned to the ancient monkey with tears brimming in his brown eyes. "Thank you, Rafiki," he said as he hugged him to his heart. "I love him too, and I love you. I love you all."
The End