Gutter Life

{April 8th, open to all.}

"O-O-Okay Mother! Yes, m'am. I promise, mother. Promise to never ever EVER leave you again! Never!"

Nuka slunk out of the cave. He'd returned. Returned to his homeland a shell of himself. With the departure of Zukkiza, he'd felt abandoned again. So he'd come home. He was a shell, a broken lion with only blind loyalty fueling him. He didn't want to lay down and die. Well, that wasn't true. He WANTED to. He wanted to just close his heavy eyes and not wake up. But he couldn't. He couldn't just end it all.

So he'd crawled back with his tail between his legs, ignoring the fact his mother hadn't even noticed he was gone. She'd told him to go fetch some mice for his new brothers to apologize. He got the sense it was just to get him to go away. The sun blazed brightly, matching the stupid grin of the psychotic state of his mind. His ears folded back to let the sun penetrate said broken brain.

"I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine," he sang to himself, "Mother will be SOOOO pleased! I've returned! Yes, I-I-I've returned to the place where I belong! At her side! Helping her kill Simba!"

"Are... You okay?"

Kishan hadn't seen Nuka around in a good while, and the last time he saw him he couldn't remember him seeming so... Out of it. The young jaguar strode a bit closer to the lion and tilted his head to the side. What on Earth had happened to him? The answer was obviously 'something,' but just what that something was remained to be seen. This bothered Kishan a great deal. He wasn't going to stand for not knowing the answer, either. It was obviously time to do some investigation... Which would just come down to some poking and prodding.

"You look like you've been hit on the head or something," Kishan remarked. His tail lashed a bit as he remarked on this much. Whatever had happened, it wasn't good. It probably wasn't something the boy would understand either. But there he was, trying to make sense of it all and looking over the lion he'd once bugged on a somewhat regular basis. This was the same lion that had tried to explain to him what 'chess' was. In the end, Kishan just ended up chewing on a knight piece and not really taking in much of it. But he still felt like he owed Nuka something. He wasn't sure what that something was in the end, but hey. Instead of being an annoying snot for once, Kishan wanted to help.

"What happened?" Yellow eyes met with Nuka's as best they could, and he waited for an answer. Whatever the answer was, Kishan had a feeling he might not like it. But there was no turning back now. He was there, and he was going to get answers.

Nuka stopped walking as he spotted the cub before him. Though not really a cub, Kishan had grown a bit. His doofy smirk stayed on his face as he stared towards the jaguar. He looked put off by Nuka’s new attitude. To be honest, if you searched the depths of Nuka’s soul, he was put off by it too. But it was his way of coping with being left alone. With being abandoned more or less.

He bounced up, puffing his chest in the air. “MOTHER sent me on an important mission, she did,” he quipped, “To go get mice for the princes. The little blood related brothers I have now. Isn’t that great?” He gave a crazed, wild look to Kishan before pacing around him.

“You should come with me! Come catch some mice and you can have some too if you want!” He paused, ear twitching slightly.

“Nothing,” he finally responded, “Nothing HAPPENED. I’m finally back in my place at the bottom.” A deep breath. “Where I BELONG.”