It was not mud or hard roots that he crashed into, but a warm body. @Bruno ♔ wasn’t exactly soft, however the land was rather cushioned in comparison to the ground and its litter. Still, it’d shocked him a bit. His surprise was rather evident in his wide-eyed expression when he turned his head around to look at his poor pillow with cupped ears. They quickly turned back to hide in his mane though when he snapped free from his bewilderment.

With an awkward laugh, Tai quickly rolled away to get off of Bruno and back onto his paws. “Hey, we uh got the nuts,” he offered, as if the reward would make the bruising worth it. Sheepishly, the mauve lion extended his paw to help up the other male. “Probably heavier than you remember?” he said with an embarrassed yet amused snort, recalling the way they’d fought as children.

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If he saw something there, it was not hatred – Bruno knew it too well. He saw surprise, he saw understanding, he saw embarrassment. With his heart racing in his chest, the lanky Stärke-Rike ruler could not begin to pinpoint what he had hoped to see reflecting back in jade irises.

Breathy, forced laughter broke the air between them as he felt the warmth roll off of the shelter of his abdomen and back to the jungle floor. Bruno moved in tandem to regain his stride and hesitated for only a moment before placing his paw into Tai's outstretched.

“Probably heavier than you remember?”

His cheeks burned. He shot the taller lion a curious stare as his mind struggled to buffer, the jungle air around them growing to a dull roar.

"Oh – I'd hope so," Bruno finally relented, eyes sparking with that same scene on the beach once more. It only maintained its footing on his mental stage for a moment before jade eyes returned, looking down at him with flushed embarrassment – looking through him. He could not stop replaying the few moments before in a loop as he stood helplessly before the one he had offered to fall for.

"I met some lions at the passage." You fucking idiot. A beat of silence.

" – a few weeks ago – strong, dark men." Bruno's ears rang with voices of protest that would go unheard. He could feel a thousand things rising up in his throat like threats against his life. Perhaps they were benign. Perhaps they would be the end of him.

"They called each other their mate."

You will be the end of me.

---

@Tai

A flickering smile played across his muzzle at Bruno’s answer, happy that neither had been harmed nor annoyed by one another. There’d certainly been a point when even glimpsing @Bruno ♔ in a crowd would’ve made the young eagle mad, and he assumed Bruno had felt likewise. But through Bruno’s persistence, they’d overcome it. The aggression between them had simmered to an awkward, brittle excitement — something he could sense, yet wouldn’t dare acknowledge out of fear of wrecking it, whatever it was.

Content with the end result of their little endeavor, Tai stepped back and reached for the branch with an outstretched limb, but paused to give Bruno his attention again when the King spoke about his visit to the Passage. It was an innocent enough start, and one Tai assumed was just a friendly way to fill the weird yet not entirely uncomfortable silence. He revealed that he’d met a pair of strong, dark males — a description that had his smile inching wider with amusement. The Mire was certainly in no short supply of those, so he was certain they would fit in, if they’d decided to take the invitation Bruno had surely offered.

But another remark followed — these strong, dark lions had called one another mates. It seemed … out of place with Bruno’s story, as if it’d been plucked from his recollection and put forth for Tai’s scrutiny. He didn’t understand why — it seemed such an innocent thing that a bonded pair would come to Amaryllis in search of a home. So, for a moment, Tai could only blink, wondering why Bruno had chosen this piece to present.

Then — a spark of realization.

The mauve lion blinked again, somewhat rapidly, as somewhere in that thick skull, a connection was made. His ears twitched on his head — forward, back, forward again — as his thoughts scattered in a thousand directions, with no idea which ones to follow. There were simply too many, and so he was left standing there, looking somewhat dumbfounded.

Finally though, his mouth opened.

“Uh … ”

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He was propelled out of reality. Seconds passed like seasons, death and rebirth moving over his mental sky like a tape on fast forward. Bruno watched the curl of amusement on Tai's features. He watched it flatten – he watched it leave. The lion could say nothing, could scarcely breathe, as he watched thoughts of bewilderment and confusion play out across the lion's expression.

Somewhere within himself, Bruno could feel the naked animal of his heart cowering. He swallowed the cotton threatening to clog his throat.

“Uh … ”

It could scarcely qualify as a word, and still it pierced him.

Vile. You are vile. In the absence of reassurance, dark clouds of rejection made their swift arrival to overtake the young ruler and drown out whatever might have taken root there.

"Forget it." He made a hollow command. Coldness had shriveled any previous daring curiosity, replacing it with a bitter scowl.

Forget it, or I am ruined.

---

-attempted exit- @Tai

Why him? From the hundreds of scrambling thoughts that blinked through his mind, one whispered more loudly than all the others: why him? @Bruno ♔ had … friends, surely. He must’ve had someone else to confide in — someone wiser than the dumbfounded lion who stood before him, unsure of how to proceed with such a suggestion, or with the deeper realization that came creeping in as he watched Bruno’s face tense, his throat jumping under his mane as he swallowed. Tai knew at once what is was: rejection.

His heart took a tumble through his chest, mouth opening again to suck in a panicked breath — but before the confused words could come rushing out, Bruno had already turned away, his voice ringing in his ears: forget it.

“Wait— !”

At last, his voice yelped out, calling for the retreating King. “Bruno— hey!” Quickly, he picked up a paw to chase after him — but some small, obnoxious thought sang out in his racing mind: don’t forget the nuts! They’d worked hard for them, after all.

A sound somewhere between a growl and a whimper spilled through his clenched teeth before they came together on the branch. Plucking the twig and its berries from the ground, Tai spun around to chase after Bruno, to follow him wherever he might lead.

Exit

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