Prompt Shop Bop

"Forever Young" - Kubariki

by John De Sohn

"Where our hearts belong"

Kubariki loves the Isle of Roses, he really does. How can he not? It's everything he's ever known. Even if it wasn't, Kubariki would still love the pride he is one day going to lead (or believes he will lead, as whether or not destiny is going to let that happen has yet to be seen). However, just because he has grown up there and does love it does not mean that is the place where his heart resides. Though he'd never admit it to anyone that asked, his heart will always belong to his childhood friend, Hadithi. She was his best friend and, now that he's older and able to understand such things more clearly, his first love. He adored her...and then he lost her. And though he has grown older and changed, at least a piece of his heart (if not the whole thing) will always be left in that time where he was with Hadithi, before she was missing. It hurts sometimes, knowing he can't remember it all in the detail he wishes he could. She was gone before he was officially out of the nursery, so of course he won't be able to remember everything due to him being so young, but he wishes that he could cling to every single memory that he has with her. Losing someone you love hurts, but to realize you loved someone only after you lost them? That makes it so much worse, and it's no wonder Kubariki's heart is still in that time. He constantly finds himself wandering how different things would be if she hadn't died, a fact that sometimes he still can barely believe. His best friend is dead. He will never get to see her again, and that hurts. (At least, he thinks he'll never get to see her again; he doesn't realize that she's still alive, and that they are destined to get to meet again.)

"We forever young"

As one would expect from someone whose heart remains in a time from his youth, Kubariki will always remember Hadithi as the little cub he used to know (till he has anything to make him remember her any other way). She is forever young in his mind, and a part of him always will be young because of that. No one realizes how much a part of him would love to just live in those moments from his childhood that he can remember with her. He may have grown up and changed, but that doesn't mean that the cub who used to play with her in the nursery is gone; on the contrary, he is still there, just a bit more grown up and trying to hide how much losing her hurt him. Kubariki doesn't want to forget how it felt to be carefree and innocent, talking with his best friend and making promises that neither of them fully understood the implications behind. So, he keeps that part of him safely tucked away, untouched by the rest of the world, so that when reality overwhelms him, he can retreat back to that place in his mind, when times were simpler.

"That we saw magic in the little things"

As a kid, the world was a mystery that Kubariki couldn't wait to explore. Alongside Hadithi, he felt like he could tackle anything; everything was an adventure, something new to try and understand. The world was open to every possibility. Upon losing Hadithi, a lot of the magic in the world around him faded away. Kubariki didn't see what there was to get out of exploring everything the world had to offer when his best friend wasn't by his side to do it. Kubariki didn't stop learning about everything, but it stopped sparking that same lively excitement in him; his heart wasn't in it. What is the point of seeing the magic in something if you've lost the person you shared that magic with? Sometimes, he sees a glimpse of that magic that was all around them as kids, but even then, it only serves to remind him of Hadithi and what he has lost now that she is gone. And once he remembers Hadithi's disappearance, the magic dissipates and dies all over again. The world feels empty without his best friend by his side to point out what made it all so wonderful and amazing, and it's too painful to see it again and remember that she isn't there to see it too.

"We used to look at the sky as the clouds rolling by
And imagine that we were kings"

The promise Kubariki made after playing with Hadithi one day is one that he will never forget. He promised that she would be his queen, not understanding the implications of romance and love behind that and simply seeing it as a title to bestow on his best friend. They would look up at the sky, seeing every possibility in the pictures they saw in the clouds. Their imaginations would run wild. Kubariki's favorite game was always when he and Hadithi would pretend to have their own pride, and he would play as the king he knew that he would one day become. He'd known pretty quickly after he was born that he would become king, and it was a fact that he was quite proud of. Hadithi never treated him any differently for it though, always picking different roles in the pride to play when they did. After one of the few times she did choose to pretend to be the queen, Kubariki made the promise that has haunted his heart ever since he uttered it, swearing that she would be his queen when he was king. He didn't realize he was in love with his best friend then, didn't realize he would still mean those words years later, only now there would be more meaning behind them. Now, it's too late, and Kubariki is never going to get the chance to tell her the truth. Kubariki still imagines what it will be like to be king, especially now that he has seen what it is like for his father behind the scenes, but more often than not, he finds himself imagining what it would be like if Hadithi were still by his side.