He does not stop walking until he finds the highest sand dune that overlooks the Oasis, and then he sits. But sitting still becomes… uncomfortable. As if he can’t breathe, and his chest is too tight to take in air. So he moves, paces along the top of the peak, sending sand down the smooth edge in an avalanche. Forces himself to inhale and exhale. The afternoon wanes into evening. He does not settle. The dune might long erode before he does.

Eventually, the ache in his legs becomes greater than the pain in his chest, and he collapses on his belly with a great, uncomfortable huff. Scorpius’s front legs dangle over the edge, and he looks down at the Oasis. From here, the king can see the tiny shapes of his niblings playing near the water. Ronin’s cubs will be somewhere too, likely getting into trouble. The rest of the pride is likely working - relaxing after a hunt, or other pride-life duties. The Oasis continues to thrive.

Scorpius can’t bring himself to care.

He does not want to be here anymore.

@Septima

Reality is bullshit. Septima prefers the safety of her dreams where she can be with him again, holding him close and giggling at the way he talks and learning his language. She prefers the dreams where her family is whole again, and more than that, she prefers the dreams where she feels his love. It hasn’t been more than a few days since she watched her husband topple into the sea with his son, and her heart aches for the boy - and for Asteria - as much as it aches for the loss of her own husband. To lose a father, a husband, and a son all in one fell swoop.. she can’t imagine how difficult it must be for the woman to handle; and yet, Septima does not seek Asteria out. Rome has told her of the complications and she is not eager to infiltrate another grieving woman’s peace when she is not welcome. For now, she simply keeps to herself.

And Scorpius, apparently.

Septima hasn’t told a soul about his death outside of her own children. She’s wandered like a ghost for the past few days having convinced herself that her eyes had been playing tricks, that he’s going to come home at any moment and they’ll laugh about her silliness. He won’t. He’ll never come home again. Her children are fatherless. She is a widow.

Scorpius looks troubled. Septima leaps at the opportunity to indulge in someone else’s pain. It’s unfair and it’s cruel, but she is desperate to be numb.

“What happened?”

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He watches @Septima climb, but there’s nothing hurried in her movement until she sees him. Scorpius doesn’t move. He should ask why she’s up here, alone, why she looks… frayed. He doesn’t. The selfish beast within him puts it down to raising cubs alone half the time, and leaves it at that. He knows better, deep down, but he still doesn’t ask. Instead, he answers her.

Sedona left.

The words are simple, cold. Practiced. Sedona left. Again and again, Scorpius has repeated them in his mind. Sedona left. She is gone. They stopped having meaning a few hours ago. Sedona left. It doesn’t hurt so much to think them anymore. Saying them… makes it more real, but at least he doesn’t sound like his voice is about to crack like it had when he begged her not to leave. Sedona left. He doesn’t sound like he cares at all. He sounds numb. He wishes he felt it as much as he’s pretending to.

What are you doing up here?

Sedona left.

His response is almost laughable, but not in a funny way. Septima has to restrain herself from barking out a dry, humorless laugh at the similarities between them in that moment. Sedona had left? Him, or the pride? Both? She knows it’s only her exhaustion that stops her from immediately diving into it, but she’ll work her way there slowly but surely. For now, she’s simply content to sit in the steely silence between them and.. exist.

Of course, then he has to go and ask what she’s doing up there on that dune and she lets her gaze drift out to the horizon. “Rome left, too.” She pauses for a beat. “But permanently.” It’s a morbid way of handling it, but she’s nothing if not a Miroslav. Coping mechanisms were not exactly their strong point.

“He’s dead. Him and his son, Asteria’s boy.” Septima relays the information coldly, mechanically. She’s just as dead inside as he is, isn’t he?

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Scorpius’s red eyes linger on Septima, wide and surprised - Prometheus left? Anger boils in the young king’s chest, growing the urge to find the grey bastard and rip into him for abandoning his sister -

“He’s dead.”

The boy freezes. He has no idea what to say - I’m sorry doesn’t cut it. Even in his own pain, he knows Septima’s is worse - far worse. Sedona is alive, even if she isn’t here. Prometheus and his son did not make that choice.

How? It’s a callus question and Scorpius hates asking it, but he has to. If their deaths were caused by someone, they would pay. Scorpius could ensure that. If it was caused by their enemies, like Leonie’s injury, he would tear them apart and burn their kingdom down, for his sister.

Septima exhales slowly. How? How did her husband die? She wants to ask why it matters, why he would ever want to make her think of those memories, but she understands as the king, she is obliged to reply. Septima knows not to put up too much of a fight against the Miroslav patriarch, certain he has his reasons to pry into what could possibly be the most upsetting thing in her life. It likely carries beyond brotherly concern.

"They were at the ocean, standing on a small ledge. It collapsed underneath them and they were swept out." Septima can't help but feel grief for the boy, too, stripped of his life at such a young age. The scream from Asteria is not something she'll ever forget. Knowing her presence would have been unwelcome in the aftermath, Septima had retreated back to the safety of her home. Her cubs were all accounted for and she couldn't shake the relief at not having lost one of her own. Perhaps, she thinks to herself quietly, if Asteria hadn't despised her, they would have had each other to comfort in such devastating times. It doesn't matter much now, though. None of it does.

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Scorpius cannot fight the ocean, or the ledge that dropped Prometheus and his son into it. He cannot imagine being forced to witness that, as it sounds like Septima likely had. She sounds cold, distant. As if cut off from the pain.

I’m sorry. It isn’t enough, but what else can he say? It isn’t fair. She knows that too. Scorpius feels inadequate yet again, unable to protect his family from death and pain and suffering. If there’s anything I can do… But there’s no one to punish, no one to blame. It has simply happened, and it cannot be undone.

"Don't." Septima's ears flatten against her head, tears already threatening to spill as she turns to nearly glare at her brother. "Don't say you're sorry. I don't want pity, I just.." She what? The Miroslav doesn't even know her right from her left anymore. Everything's been so viciously flipped upside down that Septima doesn't know which way is up, down, or anything in between.

The lioness bites her bottom lip, shaking her head.

"I don't know what happened with Sedona," she begins, dipping a toe into the raging river that was her brother's grief. "But whatever it was, Scorpius, remember that tomorrow isn't guaranteed. I'm a three year old widow. My cubs are fatherless. My heart is.. it's nothing, not anymore." Septima believes in love because she knows the weight of it and she knows, too, that her brother is enamored with the feisty little lioness. "If you wake up tomorrow and find out she's dead, will you regret not trying to repair things?" It's a rhetorical question and Septima doesn't need - or want - an answer. "Our father failed because he took tomorrow for granted. There was always a tomorrow, another lioness, another litter, another everything - and in the end, I don't think he ever truly knew what love was. He chased it in everyone he found, but he never had it. Not like I do.. did. Not like you and her." She's likely going to get chewed out, yes, but Septima can't bring herself to care. She's just.. tired.

"But sometimes you watch your husband fall to his death and you start thinking about everything you should have done, should have said. Just.. I'm sorry, I know I'm being obnoxious I'm just.. I'm sad." Which was a gross understatement.

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Septima is not going to get chewed out. Up here, alone, Scorpius is just a stupid boy and she is his older sister. Much like with Leonie, he loves her and respects her thoughts. Would defer to them if he knew how, if his pride didn't get in the way.

So he listens, unable to do anything else. And Septima... Isn't wrong. They'd both witnessed Seneca and his downfall. It hadn't truly been love in the end, but his torrid affairs hadn't helped.

It's my responsibility to protect Andal, isn't it? Whatever it takes. When she married me... I thought she knew that. I thought she knew I'd make alliances, there'd be other lionesses. I don't want to be like father - I don't want children I don't know, I don't want to fuck around. I've never wanted anyone but her. But it's my responsibility to secure our family, Septima. He looks up at her from his belly, feeling very young, and probably looking like the boy he feels he still is.

I made an alliance with Alexander Savante, I agreed to betroth myself to his niece. Sedona... She left because I did that. She hates me now. There's no repairing that.

"No." It is spoken with a firmness that surprises her, but she feels every ounce of sincerity behind it. "It is not your job to protect Andal. It's ours. It's yours, mine, Leo's, Sedona's, the Savante's. Everyone who calls this place home is to protect it. You wear the crown, but you are not alone with it. No one expects you to do everything by yourself." And his would be a lonely life if he tried to carry that burden of responsibility alone.

She shakes her head as he explains. It's understandable from both sides, yes, but she hopes she can help him see. "Rome married me and Asteria without telling the other about.. well, the other. Asteria did not handle it well because she felt blindsided, but I was trained to expect it from cubhood. Even so, it was upsetting to not know until I was carrying his cubs. I'm not sure if Asteria ever would have been accepting of me if things had gone differently, I'll admit, but it wasn't exactly considerate of him to keep us both in the dark for as long as he did.

That being said, it's not your duty to carry the weight of the family on your own. Everyone who would tell you otherwise is gone, Scorpius, and I can help you if you let me." It's a large task, but she's desperate to help her little brother out of the void. "Father did everything he could to secure our family and he didn't care who he trampled in the process. In the end, he trampled you. He trampled me. He trampled my mother, your mother, every other lioness out there he ever sired a litter with because he only cared about himself. You're not that. You're more of a man than he ever would be, even if he was still around today." And boy, does she have some things she would tell him if he was.

She lowers onto her stomach alongside him, trying to gently touch her shoulder against his. "Neither of us were ever taught what a healthy relationship should look like, so it makes sense that I would end up with a man so similar to Dad and you would do anything in your power to avoid becoming him. We saw what he did and we assumed that's how it should be, but I don't think it is. I think we can do better than our parents by doing the opposite of whatever they would do," she says, gesturing with a paw. "Do you think Seneca would have arranged a betrothal for himself without letting his wife know first?" Septima tilts her head as she watches him, moving her paw to gently rest on top of his. She wants to reassure him that his answer doesn't matter, that she'll love him no matter what.

"Love can't turn to hate so quickly, Scorpius. She doesn't hate you."

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