Chapter Text
Somewhere in the middle of the story...
Kion leaped over the rocks, his reflexes allowing him to smoothly reach his destination with little effort. As he arrived at Broken Rock, he saw the one he was meeting, already there, waiting for him anxiously under the shadow of one of the rocks above.
"Hello, Kion," he said, his voice quiet, very unlike the voice he normally spoke with. Kion smiled and returned the greeting, albeit constantly looking back to make sure no one had followed.
"They're getting suspicious, right?"
"Yeah. I wanna tell them, but..."
"But they'd exile you. As nice as it'd be to see you more often, I know you wouldn't want that," his little secret said, stepping out of the shadow he sat in. It allowed Kion to see him much clearer, let him see the other's dark spotted fur and yellow-tinted eyes.
Kion didn't reply, other than giving him a smile. He looked behind himself once more before feeling confident that he hadn't been followed, and stepped closer to the hyena in front of him.
After a moment, the two of them burst into soft laughter at the situation they were in.
"How did it come to this? When did this happen?" Janja asked, his voice slightly hysterical, and yet Kion knew he wouldn't have wanted to change it.
Kion could pinpoint the very moment everything changed, the small ember that caused this raging inferno they were currently trapped in.
"If you ask me, I think it started with the butterfly."