Sunrise

"It's sunrise."

Haraka's words made Cuore's heart ache as he stared at the red and gray lioness. "So it is." What else was he meant to say?

He rose to his paws, prepared to head back to camp and fall back into the norm that they so easily fell into (despite how much he hated that they acted so harshly towards each other, acted as if they detested each other), but he was surprised to see her tail curl around his paws before he could get too far. "Stay."

She said it as if it was so simple, as if it was as easy as just simply deciding to stay with her instead of returning back to the Isle of Roses camp.

"I need to get back. Our pridemates will wonder where we are." He didn't add that it wouldn't be an issue if she (they, if he was being honest, because he never advocated against it) didn't insist on them keeping this a secret.

"Where you are," she corrected, and Cuore couldn't find anything to offer that would counteract that statement. Nothing that would avoid starting an argument, that is. He would have loved to point out to her that she had pushed everyone in the pride away by refusing to let them get close. Haraka had created her own isolation, and in doing so, had created her own pain; she was so aggressive just to keep everyone away (even Cuore wasn't totally sure what her history was, because she never was very open to sharing where she'd come from and how she'd come to close herself off to the world) and protect herself, but in the process, she was just making herself feel even worse. "Please, just for a few more minutes, let's sit here together."

"I..." he trailed off when he met her gaze. Now, she was silently pleading for him to sit back down with her, to just spend a few more moments with her, and Cuore couldn't deny her that. So he did as she asked and sat back down beside her as she leaned her head against his shoulder. "Okay," he whispered, his voice unintentionally expressing the melancholy he tried to bury down inside of him.

He too was not eager to go back to hissing and arguing at each other, and besides, it was nice to have someone to watch the sunrise with.