Kovu and Mipa: Amore
#10 of Kovu and Mipa
Kovu tries to advance his relationship with Mipa
Mipa sobbed quietly for half an hour. Then Kovu heard her get up and move. His pulse quickened, but was let down when he heard her moving farther away. Kovu settled onto his belly and grabbed a nearby bone, deciding to settle in for a longer wait.
She was gone over an hour. Frequently Kovu imagined her seeking her "Jobie" for comfort and consul. He frowned. He wanted to perform that function for her. He still puzzled over what had happened. "Maybe I'm being too comforting..." he muttered to himself. "Maybe I'm not being real enough... coming on too strong with the encouragement."
He didn't know. He'd never tried to manipulate another lion like this before. Oh, Nuka had been pretty easy to trick back home, but both Zira and Vitani were smarter than him and he knew it. He'd always been too busy falling for their tricks to learn much more than to divert an idiot's wrath from himself. Absently, he wondered what they were doing. Was Zira heartbroken with his disappearance, or had she found another stooge to worm her way into the Pridelands with? Did Vitani care? She had seemed a callous and spiteful lioness, but she was never crazy, not like their mother. And Nuka... well, he'd always be Nuka.
Kovu set his bone aside when he heard movement in the grass beyond the glade. Mipa had returned, and her expression was calm, maybe a little tired. Kovu rose himself up on his haunches.
The lioness came to him and sat down heavily. Kovu could not help but notice the sprawl of her tummy on the ground under her. It'd been two days since they'd last eaten anything - Mipa being too busy with her cloak to check her traps - so very little of that gut could be blamed on a full stomach. She wouldn't look Kovu in the eyes as she spoke. "Kovu, I'm sorry I acted the way I did. I was angry at myself and I took it out on you."
"I understand Mipa." said the black-maned lion. He took a deep breath before he plunged on with the words he'd thought of. "But you have to understand something as well." Her eyebrows raised in surprise and her tail tossed and turned on the ground. He continued, "You shouldn't keep your feelings bottled up inside like that. It's not good for you and I don't like how you keep shutting me out either. I want you to tell me how you feel about your weight, about food and about what happened to you before you came here."
Mipa jaw dropped. "Kovu! That's none of your b-"
"It is my business, Mipa!" said Kovu, standing. "It's my business because I really like you...I think I love you." The words flew out of his mouth with surprising ease despite the fact that he'd just derailed his original train of words.
Mipa's tail went still in shock and her eyes rose to meet Kovu's burning ones. She breathed shallowly for a minute, both lions afraid to make a sound. Mipa spoke, "Kovu...I..." She took another breath. "I don't know what to say."
The lion moved forward, pressing his chest against hers. His paw rose to touch her back in a close embrace. "Just say yes." he said.
They held each other for a long time. It was a while before Kovu felt small drops wet his back. "I...I think I l-love you too." she said at last and he squeezed her soft body to him.
"Can you tell me why you're so concerned about your weight, Mipa?" Kovu asked much later, as they lay together in her bed, the sky burning in twilight.
"Can you tell me why you're not concerned with my weight?" she slapped her paunch where it spread out on the ground for emphasis; even lying on her side, it was bulging lower than her rib cage now.
Kovu tried not to smile at the display, but rather took in her generous form. Mipa's already deep coat of fat had deepened visibly over the last week, not just at her belly, although that was the most visible. The little roll over the base of her tail had enlarged and thickened and one could also see her new-found weight in her full cheeks and thick, slightly-hanging, neck fat as well as the width of her soft rounded shoulders. She was a big girl, more than half as heavy again as him now despite his bigger frame. He wanted to see how she would look when she was twice as heavy as he.
He couldn't voice that side of his nature though, not now. "Mipa, I'd be concerned if you couldn't catch food for yourself or couldn't be self sufficient. As it is, however, you catch more food than I do and you can do these incredible things with your paws."
Kovu couldn't see it under her chocolate brown fur, but he did smell when she blushed. "You have it the other way around, Kovu. I'm fat because I make traps. I couldn't run down an antelope to save my life."
The dark maned lion shrugged. "Do you have to? Would you ever try to run down an antelope when you could bait and trap it instead?"
She hit him with her paw. He showed his teeth, she was surprisingly forceful. "Kovu! Doesn't it bother you that I can't run down prey? That I'm literally too fat to run in general?"
He reached out and put his forepaws on her broad shoulders. Their faces were close. "I already said what I thought counts. You can do what you need to do to get food for yourself and live in the wild." He shook his head, his thick mane waving, "That's enough for the Circle."
Mipa said nothing, glancing away shyly.
"Besides, aren't you the one always telling me about how your way is better?"
"I never-"
"You said that you were more clever than your sisters who had to run all day to sometimes catch an antelope when you could have half a dozen small animals just spending the morning setting traps." Kovu said, pushing a little harder into her pudge.
"I meant...well, I just...just think that its a more efficient way to spend one's time..." said Mipa bashfully.
He tapped her on the shoulder and let himself down. "There you go. If setting traps works for you and you don't have a problem setting traps, then I don't think there is an issue.
"Kovu, you're just avoiding the bigger issue." said Mipa, sticking her snout at him.
Kovu turned his nose to the side and looked at her sidelong. "Like you're avoiding my original question?"
"I...I, er..." blustered Mipa.
"If you don't want to talk about it yet, I understand." said Kovu. "But we are going to talk about it. And I'm going to keep bringing it up until you do."
Mipa frowned, "Why?" she asked insolently.
He faced her, "Because it's important to you."
She sighed raggedly. "Fine! Kovu. I'll bite. What was it you were asking?"
"Why do you feel so bad about your weight? Especially since it doesn't affect your day to day life."
She growled softly, "But it does affect my day to day life! You don't know what it's like to wake up everyday and have to see all of this." she pawed at her lumpy frame, pulling up quite a large fold of skin and fat and letting it drop back down.
"So it's about appearances for you." said Kovu softly.
Her growling intensified, "It is not. Whose around here to see me anyway, aside from you? And you don't seem to mind if I blow up to the size of an elephant!" Kovu's eye twitched, if only she knew how close to the mark she was. "It's not that."
"Then what is it?" insisted the lion.
"It...it's just that...if I don't care then who else will?" Kovu cocked his head, waiting for her to continue. "My mom used to badger me constantly about my weight growing up. She wanted me to be pretty, so the pride leader would be interested in me...but I was always too round at the middle, my haunches were too thick. 'Go run in the savanna.' she'd say, 'And don't come back until dawn.'" Mipa sniffed. "And then I got banished after I refused the Pride leader. My mother disowned me." she drew a long shuttering breath. "Then after that, the lions I met all called me a fatass, even the rogue males would jeer even as they chased after me when I was in heat. I had to keep setting traps to support myself, I was already too out of shape to catch anything the old way. And it just kept working, I never lost weight, but I never gained much either... until I came here, and I was alone." she hissed through her teeth and looked with ire at her tummy, "And when I left them, I wound up growing this huge belly! I doubt even the rouge males would touch me now..."
Kovu stood and went over to the fat lioness. She looked up at him as he drew his rough paw down her back. "What they said doesn't matter any more, Mipa." he said as he stroked her, the skin shivering under the contact. "You don't have to keep repeating their words to yourself." He bent down over her, his breath brushing her fur at the nape of her neck. "Besides...I'll touch you...if you like." With his rough tongue he licked her lovingly, up the side of her neck and onto her cheek. She fluttered her eyes in surprise when he put a paw on her chest and forcefully rolled her over onto her back.
"Kovu!" she said with a quick in-draw of breath. She stammered as he moved his paw in circles, pushing into the fat over her breastbone. Then, with the suddenness of a twig snapping, she relaxed into his touch. "...I...I'm not even in heat..."
Kovu grinned down at her. "It's alright. I just want you to know that you're beautiful." He moved his head over her abdomen. "And that I care." Kovu drew his tongue up her tummy from belly button to breast bone. She shivered and sighed under him.
Kovu was filled with excited energy when he looked down at Mipa's prone form. Electricity seemed to send sparks coursing along his spine. He wanted to touch her... and more he thought. The black maned lion had to reign in most of his passion as he stood over Mipa, lying there on the grass on her broad back. It's just not time yet... he thought resignedly. Still, there were still ways that he could show her that he cared.
For the first time, Kovu embraced the opportunity to openly caress Mipa's body, lavishly petting her, stroking her, licking her and making her laugh.
Her tummy was wide and smooth. Her belly fur was an off shade of grey and sparse over her dark skin. Twin rows of nipples lined a ligament which supported and bifurcated her tummy, she had gotten so big that they were curving outwards, the lines of nipples bowed out at her waist. They were small and red, hardly bigger than his own...she'd never nursed before. That was odd for a lioness her age.
But Kovu hardly cared, he pawed the smooth surface of her belly. From her solar plexus, her tummy dropped less than the thickness of his paw to a broad, smooth, especially soft plain. When Kovu tickled her wiry coat here, she laughed and kicked her feet fussily, like a cub. The surface of her belly shook and jiggled like a gelatin mold when she did.
Laughing, she grinned up at him, looking with those blue eyes. "Kovu! stop! ...I'm ticklish!"
Kovu smirked. "Really? Does that mean you're ticklish here too?" With a deep laugh, he bent down and took hold of her two fatty flanks at her waist. He pressed his claw pricks into her and scratched up and down madly. The limp flesh in his paws squished nicely as he squeezed.
Mipa squealed and tossed left and right, trying to escape him. He jumped off of her and rolled heavily onto her flank, but he wasn't done with her yet.
Kovu pounced, planting his elbows and forelegs on her thick flank. She batted weakly at his face as he ground his forelegs into her plump hide. He pushed his knees into her curving back as well. Lowering himself down, he stretched his arms around her chest and up her back. Again, her girth surprised him. He couldn't reach all the way around her! Her back was thick and soft, the skin piling up at the ground where he left with his left paw. Her chest, though not as deep as his, was also rounded and smoothed with layers of flesh. She shrieked again when he reached under her arm...
Smushing his face with her paw, she forced him to retreat and she flopped over again, panting now. He strolled over to her other side. "Not much for wrestling are you?" he joked.
She chuffed, "I told you I never liked to play rough."
He pushed a paw against her lumpy shoulder. "It's never too late to change your mind."
She smiled up at him, but knocked his paw away. "Eh...I still don't think its my thing...although, it did feel kinda nice when you were on my back."
Kovu walked around her then mounted her again from the side, putting his elbows on her flank. "What, like this?"
"Just let me...stay there, Kovu." said Mipa who then rolled onto her belly. Kovu took a few steps with his hindfeet so he stayed on top. "Ah..." sighed Mipa. "That's it. Move your elbows around some more, Kovu."
Grinning, Kovu complied, putting his weight on his joints. It wasn't hard to figure out what she wanted. Kovu moved up and down her spin, pushing down hard on her shoulders as she flexed muscles deep below the skin surface. The dense padding was a challenge, but Kovu was a 400 lb cat after all, he had weight and muscle he could use and he did, until Mipa relaxed like pudding under him. He wasn't satisfied until she was satisfied, and even when he settled down to rest, he wanted to rest his paws against her.
After a silence so long, Kovu thought that they were going to nap until later this evening, Mipa said. "No one's ever done anything like that for me."
Kovu snorted, "Well, I'm glad I could be the first."
"No really, Kovu... No one's ever made me feel attractive, or at all wanted..." She took a deep breath. "I don't...I don't know why you're doing this. But it feels good, and I appreciate you trying to make me feel better..."
Kovu frowned to himself, even after all that she didn't believe he found her attractive! "Mipa." he said firmly, gripping her shoulder with his paw, "I'm not doing this as a favor to you. I really like the way you feel..." his brought his paw down over the curving surface of her back, "the way you smell. I'm not lying to you to make you feel better, I..." He let out a pent up breath and then pressed the fork of his legs against her, so she could feel him against the padding at her tail head.
She gave a little gasp and went stiff. Kovu kept pressing himself against her, waiting for her to speak. She took several deep breaths, as if shocked to feel his excitement behind her. "...I believe you, Kovu." she said. She let out a shuddering sigh and said again, her voice quavering slightly, "I believe you." Kovu almost thought that she was impressed, but then noticed her quivering, the way her hairs raised on the back of her neck. The subtle tang of her scent forwarded her emotions to him. She was far from impressed by his maleness, rather she was afraid.
Kovu relented, breathing hard himself and forcing himself to calm down. He hoped he hadn't gone too far. He rolled over and faced away from her for some time. When that wasn't enough, he got up to go take a long walk in the woods. Part of him kept wanted to turn around and return to the glade. Kovu didn't return until he had remastered that part of himself. He knew he was too much like his father.