Love Beyond Reasons

A/N: Holy-! This chapter is like, three times longer than all of the previous ones! Maybe even four! Why did I decide to do this much in one single chapter? Because I couldn't stop when I feel like I know how certain chapters should go, that's why. Sometimes, me writing something is great, other times I feel like my fingers might come off.

Oh, well. I hope you guys like this. I put a lot of work into it, and I had this ready to post since yesterday, but things don't always do according to plan.

Let's get on with Part One of Chapter 7! Roll it!

Chapter 7

Kion Discovers His Destiny

Part One

Another two months have quickly passed since Kiara and Kion's little misadventures in the Outlands. But much had changed during that time. Kiara had started to take her royal duties as future queen more seriously, hardly getting herself dirty or having any fun, developing a bit of a snobbish behavior, much to Kion's dismay and annoyance. Often, Kion would find himself alone while his sister hung out with two other female cubs in the pride, Tiifu and Zuri. And he wasn't particularly close with the other cubs in the pride. But he always had Bunga to hang out with.

There was another little incident during that short period of time that involved the young Kion when he and Bunga indirectly challenged a float of crocodiles after sneaking out of Pride Rock one time, and Zazu had to come to their rescue. When Simba heard this, he became a little worried that now that Kiara was focusing more on her duties, Kion was starting to become the rebellious one. Then again, he didn't expect Kion to grow up so fast. After all, he is still a cub, but he still worried about his free-spirited son.

Eventually, Kion and Bunga became friends with some other young animals that lived in the Pride Lands. There was Beshte the hippo, who really was more gentle with others than he was tough, but he was still a force to be reckoned with if needed. He had smooth gray skin with his belly a lighter shade, blue eyes, and a tuft of dark hair on his head.

Ono the egret, who had a sharp mind that rivalled his eyesight. He had white and orange feathers, black eyes and long legs suitable for a young egret. He sometimes was a bit of a sarcastic worrywart, but he wouldn't back down if his friends needed him.

And then finally, there was Fuli the cheetah, who doesn't like anything slowing her down, but she still manages to have some time with her best friends. She had golden yellow fur with large black spots all over her body, a long tail for balance when she runs, was long and lanky for a cheetah cub, and bright green eyes.

A lot of the times, all five of them would hang out near the water hole, just talking about the day's events or playing hide-and-seek or even playing baobab ball. Fuli though, stayed out of the water at all times, for she hated it with a passion, or even getting wet. She sometimes doesn't get how Kion tolerates water, for he was a feline like her. The lion cub only laughed at that and just told her that he had to deal with worse things than simply getting his fur wet. He'd rather get soaked to the bone than deal with his sister and her attitude towards him. Fuli giggled at his little joke and agreed with him.

Still, even with four close friends, Kion would wonder why Kiara suddenly started to avoid him like he was some sort of embarrassment to her. They used to be so close, even though they had differing opinions about their father's rules. She would be the headstrong one, getting him and herself into trouble, while he was supposed to be the responsible one, looking out for her as only a brother could. He was the only protection she didn't mind. But now it seemed like those days were gone, and he never knew why.

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One particular morning, Kion was playing a game of baobab ball with Bunga at Pride Rock. When Bunga kicked the fruit high over him, the prince saw that it was nearing where his father and sister were sitting at the peak of the giant rock monument, talking to each other.

"Heads up! Incoming!" He shouted to them.

The baobab fruit bounced on Simba's head and landed on the rocky floor in front of him, and Kion hurried past them to get it. By now, both he and Kiara had grown a little bit taller and more lithe and slender. But Kion has the one who had more noticeable growth, due to him being a male.

He no longer had slightly darker speckles on his lower back, but he still had some of them on his ankles. His mane tuft had grown to the back of his head with two tiny strands loose above his eyes, his nose turned into a much darker pinkish color, even darker than the rest of his family, and he started to gain some muscles in his legs and upper body. His whiskers had darkened as well. He still had the scar on his left eye from his incident with the jackals in the Outlands.

"Kion!" Kiara chided as her brother squeezed past her and their father.

"Oh, uh, sorry Dad." Kion apologized sheepishly. "Me and Bunga were playing baobab ball and-"

Just then, Bunga leapt over to them. He had also grown in height, and the white fur that was on his head had grown a little bit longer. "Kion couldn't handle the pass." He teased.

"What? A giraffe couldn't handle it!" Kion retorted as he lightly punched his friend in the stomach. "You kicked it over my head!"

"Kion!" Simba tried to get his son's attention.

"And you couldn't handle it." Bunga continued to tease as he jumped over his friend's head.

"Bunga...."

"Oh, yeah?" Kion asked playfully. "Try to handle this!"

Both young mammals had grabbed hold of the fruit, Bunga with his claws and Kion with his teeth, each trying to pull it away from the other's grasp. Kiara sighed at the sight of them, rolling her eyes.

"Boys!" Simba said.

Kion abruptly released the fruit, causing Bunga to fall back. The young lion cub then turned his attention to his father. "Kion, I need to talk to your sister. She'll be tracking gazelles with her friends today."

Kiara smiled proudly. "Because I'm training to be-"

"Queen of the Pride Lands." Kion interrupted her with a roll of his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. I know all about it, Kiara."

He really didn't like it when his sister rubbed her role in the Circle of Life in his face, which was almost all the time. She didn't do that back when they were little. She didn't even want to be queen at first! So what changed?

Kiara scoffed. "Well, at least I have my life figured out." She said. "What are you gonna grow to be, little brother?" She teased.

"Happy?" Kion teased her back with his eyebrows raised up playfully, remembering how much she hated to one day become queen when they were younger. "And you're older than me by five minutes." Kiara glowered at him.

"All right, you two. That's enough." Simba said, gently nudging his son away from his sister before another argument between them would start. "Kion, why don't you and Bunga go play somewhere else?" He suggested.

Bunga leaped up at the idea. "Yeah, yeah! I know the perfect place!"

He quickly rushed to the edge of the peak and held up the fruit. "Hey, Kion! You'll never get the baobab fruit, no!" He teased.

Kion ran over to him. "You got nowhere to go, Bunga!" He said.

"Says you!" Bunga replied before tossing the baobab fruit high up and then literally jumping off the peak. "Zuka Zama!" He cried out.

Kion rushed to the edge to see his friend flipping in the air and then landed in a tree, which thankfully softened his fall as he descended towards the ground. "Catch me if you can, Kion!" Bunga called up to his best friend as the baobab fruit landed back in his claws and he took off running.

Kion smirked confidently. "Game on, Bunga!" He called back to him. Then he took off running down Pride Rock as he called back to his family. "Later, Dad! Have fun tracking those gazelles, Kiara! I gotta get Bunga!"

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Both the lion cub and the honey badger played and raced throughout the Pride Lands, even running into some of their other friends, Ono, Beshte and Fuli. Finally, Kion managed to pounce on Bunga, making him drop the baobab fruit. "Gotcha now, Bunga." He said. When the fruit landed near them, Kion ran over to get it first.

"Not yet!" Bunga said as he tackled the lion cub onto his back and began tickling him, making him let go of the fruit that he got hold of.

"Stop it! Bunga!" Kion pleaded while laughing. While he was laughing, Bunga got the fruit again. Kion got back onto all fours.

The honey badger chased the bouncing fruit and quickly got hold of it again. "Got it!" He said.

But Kion was already settled into a low pouncing position, his tail twitching in the air playfully. He had been taking pouncing and hunting lessons from both his dad and his mom as he and his sister grew older and stronger, and he proved himself to be a fast learner, much to Kiara's chagrin.

He leaped forward and tackled Bunga again, pinning him down onto his stomach, making him drop the fruit again. "Whoa!" Bunga exclaimed at Kion's surprise attack. But then, both young cubs watched as the baobab fruit dropped and rolled into the one place Kion didn't think he would come back to so soon. The Outlands.

They were near another part of the dry and barren border, where there was a large deep crevice in the ground that separated the Pride Lands and Outlands, as if they were on a cliff. Both of them looked down to where the fruit disappeared to.

"Aw! It rolled into the Outlands." Kion said. "Game over."

But Bunga just shrugged it off. "Says who?" He asked. "I'm not afraid of the Outlands."

"Neither am I." Kion said, remembering his little adventure there when he was little. "It's just- my dad. He says we shouldn't-"

"Oh, puh-leeze!" Bunga said, knowing that deep down, despite his older sister thinking that he was now the immature one out of the two of them, his best friend was still a bit of a stickler for the rules. "Simba's a big old scaredy-cat when it comes to the Outlands. Besides, do you still remember when you went there with Kiara back when we were little?"

"Yeah, and do you remember what happened after that?" Kion asked. "Kiara and I got grounded for a whole week, and Dad wouldn't let us go anywhere outside of Pride Rock without him, Mom or Zazu watching us. It was embarrassing."

"Just because you got your first battle scar?" Bunga asked, gesturing to the scar on Kion's face.

When the lion cub gave him a dry look, he realized why. "Oh, yeah. He's that kind of dad." He said quietly. "But who cares?" He asked as he got ready to jump. "You know what my uncles always say!"

"Hakuna Matata." Kion said while rolling his eyes as he watched his friend head into the Outlands.

Bunga managed to get down to the ground, even though he did get snagged on a tree branch on the way down. He soon landed on his back paws with a perfect landing. "Now where'd that baobab fruit go?" He asked himself. But little did he and Kion know that the honey badger wasn't alone down there.

Finally, Bunga managed to find the fruit. "Aha! Here we go!" He said, picking it up.

But right behind him were two glowing pairs of sinister yellow eyes. Kion managed to see them from where he was standing, though. "Heyvi kabisa!" He muttered to himself. "Bunga! Heads up!" He called down to his friend.

"Relax, Kion!" Bunga called back to him, tossing the baobab fruit up in the air. "Remember? Hakuna-" Right as he turned to the side of him, there was a growling hyena right in front of him. "-Matata." He finished nervously as the fruit came down and landed in his claws.

"Get outta there, Bunga!" Kion called to him worriedly.

But the honey badger couldn't resist a chance to show off his guts in a fight. "Okay, hyena." He said to the snarling animal, even poking him in the nose with his claw. "You wanna see what this honey badger's made of? I'll show you what I'm made of!"

However, another hyena had snuck up behind Bunga and grabbed him roughly by the scruff. Both of them laughed at their little act of trickery.

"Hey!" Bunga exclaimed, starting to twitch in the hyena's teeth. "Let me go so I can show that other guy what I'm made of."

Kion could tell by the way that they were acting that they weren't nice hyenas like Jasiri and Madoa, his hyena rescuers back when he was lost in the Outlands as a little cub, and that they didn't respect the Circle of Life. And he was right. These hyenas were called Cheezi and Chungu, the right-paw members that belonged to Janja's clan. It goes to say that one bad fruit ruined the entire tree.

"Hyenas! Put Bunga down!" He shouted down to them. "Pick on someone your own size!"

"Kion!" Cheezi called up to the young prince. "You want the honey badger?" He laughed. "Come and get him." He dared him.

"Let him go!" Kion yelled, still not moving from his spot. "You hyenas don't want any trouble with my dad!"

"Oh, just like how you'd get in trouble if you came into the Outlands. Again." Cheezi retorted back. Kion clenched his jaw. So it seems that the incident had spread all across the Pride Lands and in the Outlands. Just his luck.

Both Cheezi and Chungu laughed at their teasing. "Uh, Kion?" Bunga called up to his friend, hoping for a rescue any time.

"He's too afraid to come down here." Chungu continued to taunt, still holding Bunga with his teeth.

"Yeah!" Cheezi agreed. "Fraidy cat! Fraidy cat!"

The two taunts that were repeating over and over made Kion glare at them and turn away angrily. He got into trouble once with his dad before when it came to the Outlands. He couldn't disobey him yet again. But yet, Bunga was in danger. His mind was telling him one thing, while his gut was telling him another. But he couldn't decide which one to listen to.

"All right, yeah. Fun's over." Cheezi said, interrupting the taunts. "Janja needs his lunch."

"Lunch?" Bunga gulped.

"No!" Kion exclaimed. Suddenly, he felt a surge of something powerful stirring up inside of him. He then made one last command, using every bit of power in his voice.

"Let. Him. GO!" He yelled, and then his yell turned into a mighty loud roar, even for a cub. It sounded as if he was an adult lion instead of a cub, and that others were roaring with him. The clouds that suddenly above him had morphed into lion heads, and they seemed to be roaring with Kion.

Everyone down there looked up at him with awe. Chungu even dropped his jaw, unintentionally dropping Bunga. Kion roared once more before a rusty orange mark of a lion's head suddenly appeared on his left shoulder as he glared fiercely at the two hyenas.

Seeing his chance, Bunga put the baobab fruit in Chungu's agape mouth and jumped on Cheezi's head. "See ya, hyena! Wouldn't wanna be ya!" He called to him as he quickly made his way back up to the cliff and into the Pride Lands.

By now, Kion had realized what had happened. "Heyvi kabisa." He said. "What was that?" The roaring lion head that appeared on his shoulder quickly vanished after that.

Seeing that there was no more trouble, Kion and Bunga began heading back to Pride Rock. "Zuka Zama!" Bunga exclaimed. "Kion, how'd you roar like that?"

"I don't know, Bunga." Kion admitted. "Wish I did, though."

"Well, however you did it, it was un-bunga-lievable!" Bunga said.

A/N: That's Part One of this chapter. Hang tight for Part Two!