Zira hated Simba, ever since she blamed him for her mate's death. Nuka had been born weak and useless for reasons Zira couldn't understand - if only she'd known who her parents were, she would know - and now, she'd gone into estrus again. She was confused and not-quite-right-minded. And she had searched the Pridelands for the past three days and found no rogue males.
She had only one viable male around.
And on this day, he was out with her on patrol. Zira smiled, knowing that she was healthy and still full-bodied. She wasn't currently really collected enough to make a real plan, so of course she had one option: she threw herself at him. He was young, impressionable. He had only one cub, who was weak itself.
"Simba," she purred, "You know, Nuka is about as useless as they come."
"Yes, and?" Simba showed the best disinterest he possibly could to a lioness in estrus.
"And, I'm in estrus," she snapped, giving up.
"That's... nice." Simba told her, with a tone of, 'of course I can tell!'
She rolled her eyes and pinned him down, purring. "Come on! Don't make me chase you..." He didn't struggle under her. She smiled, seeing that he wasn't going to worry about fighting off the urge to mate with a lioness in estrus. She smiled, leaping off and turning, leading him to a more secluded area...
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Not much to be said on this one, except, well... Later on, Kopa came into existence. The next few will all be interconnected via this incident.
Great image, as well!