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The rain poured down endlessly, and he's the only animal who had nowhere to go and take shelter now.
That's a lie, though. He knew where he could go, but he couldn't look Janja in the eye. He couldn't tell Janja that he'd been cut off from his home, his family and friends, because of him. It would hurt him, and he'd either go and attack everyone or he'd try and break things off to make it better, when there's absolutely no going back now.
If he went and attacked everyone, that would only cement his father's belief that hyenas, and all other Outlanders, are nothing but selfish, vicious killers. He wouldn't let that happen, because it would only make it harder in the future to fix everything.
As if it could be fixed.
And Janja breaking things off wouldn't help either. His father and everyone else already saw him as an outcast. Like he had committed some grave sin.
"Having such relations with the greatest threat to the Pridelands... Especially you, Kion. You were the leader of the Lion Guard. This is the most horrid deception I could imagine. It's a disgrace."
Deception.
Disgrace.
Those words echoed in his mind and twisted his heart. The rain poured harder, and Kion finally admitted that there was only one place he would feel safe right now.
Of course he knew. The moment his poor lion cub came into the cave, one look at those sad broken eyes and he knew what had happened. Kion nearly collapsed against him, sobs shaking his body. He did his best to hush and console him, but tears pricked at his own eyes. His lackeys watched with wide eyes. Not because they didn't already know of their relationship, because they definitely did. They just seemed shocked to see the leader of the Lion Guard so broken.
He told Cheezi and Chungu to find something for Kion to eat. When they asked where to get it, he hesitated. Where could they get it? They'd surely have the borders being heavily watched right now, and there was no way they could even take one step into the Pridelands before they'd get caught.
"Not hungry," Kion mumbled. He just sighed, relenting for now. He'd figure out where to get food when the storm passed.
"C'mon. Let's just go to sleep."
He and Kion curled up next to each other, thoughts of a broken, uncertain future looming over their heads as they wondered what to do now.