[PRP] Open Fire [Bangizwe & Andhaka]

[Quaji]

(will edit image in later)

That had gone well, of course, there was a sarcastic undertone to the thought that ran through Bangizwe's head as he followed behind his partner, albeit at a few paces behind him as they moved farther to put distance between them and the lionesses. Things had gone to s**t and while he was to blame for it, the lionesses did need to learn that blood was not everything and that Andhaka needed to learn that the lionesses, while responsible for their position, did not have power over them.

"If you're going to hit me, yell at me, either, both--get it over with already," Bangizwe spoke, his voice softer, gentler than it had been before. However, he still kept his eyes averted from Andhaka's tense form. He knew a fight was inevitable, but rather he didn't know if it would be a physical or vocal fight. In truth, he did regret it, but he still wouldn't apologize. He had to protect them, even if it meant that everyone in the pride would be out for his blood.  

[Meepfur]

That had damn near been a disaster, and Andhaka continued to fume as he moved at a quick but deliberate pace, intent on getting as far away from the lionesses as possible, hopefully to where prying eyes and ears would not follow them. He wouldn't put it past someone to try, as gossip-loving as the pride tended to be, but they'd already given them enough to talk about. They didn't need to witness the rest; although to be completely honest, which Andhaka rarely was, he hadn't yet decided what the rest would be. Anger and frustration clouded his usually clear head, accompanied by an unsettling hurt that Bangizwe had undermined him, contradicted and argued with him. All in all, it was entirely too much feeling for the male who preferred to keep as much distance between himself and emotion as possible.

When Bangizwe spoke, Andhaka snapped, all the pent-up tension inside let loose, and he turned and sprang at the larger male. There were claws but no fangs, no intent to do real damage, but he was angry and he needed him to know, needed him to bleed, even just a little.

Quaji

 

[Quaji]

There was no resistance from Bangizwe as he allowed himself to fall to the ground with a grunt. There was no retaliation as he let Andhaka take out his frustration out on his scarred skin. And there it was, the familiar sting that he knew all too well. Without a shadow of a doubt, he knew blood was beginning to smear across the ground, slicking his coat. There wasn't a care in his mind about his own well-being.

"Andi," Bangizwe had never called him by a nickname before now, always formal, always putting on a certain image that he had all but shattered by now. "I.." What words could he even say? He couldn't apologize for his choice words from earlier, but the hurt, the anger, in those hazel eyes made his chest ache something fierce. Any damage Andhaka could do to him could never compare to it. "Igazi lami, please, I hurt you..."

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

The attack was as quiet as it was short-lived, no words or even growls, just the slamming of his body into Bangizwe's and the slash of claws over hide. And somehow, it only made him angrier that the other male didn't fight back, didn't offer even the least bit of resistance. There was no satisfaction in laying into someone who wouldn't so much as defend themselves. He'd only struck a few times before he gave up, telling himself he stopped because it wouldn't do for his fellow Umholi to look like he'd taken a beating, that it would only add to the strife that had been set in motion. He shoved down hard on the older lion before abruptly releasing him and turning away, muscles quivering and tail lashing.

"Why do you have to be so gods-damned stupid?!" he snarled, claws biting into the ground instead of flesh now. "Did you hear her? Did you hear Baie? What have you started, you idiot?"

Quaji

 

[Quaji]

Silently Bangizwe hoped that slices would scar, to become a reminder that he desperately needed. "I am stupid, but someone had to be and it was about time that I took the lashings instead of you."

"I would rather have her, have them all, have you hate me that let you die," his words were louder at the beginning, but quickly faded as each syllable fell from his mouth. "We can't support them. You know that as well as I do. We'll all die, one by one. I don't want your cubs to have to resort to eating their father to live."

Rolling onto his side, Bangizwe kept his eyes trained on the blood-red male. "They held the hand. They had blood on their side. If I didn't intervene, they could have easily joined with the lionesses' backing and then what would you do? At least if they wipe out or at the very least scatter the hyenas, you, your cubs, the pride, may stand a chance to survive this--with or without me.."

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

"Oh, don't be such a damn martyr!" Andhaka spat, rounding to face his golden counterpart again. "And don't make me into one, either! No one's going to be eating anybody, you melodramatic a**, but if Khazine dies, you're ********. If Baie gets enough lionesses together to chase you out, what am I supposed to do? Sit around and wait for the next idiot rogue Simosihle takes a shine to?"

He'd gotten lucky with Bangizwe, ridiculously so, and that wouldn't happen again. He'd never expected to see the big male from his bachelor group again, but then he'd come trailing in with the Umama declaring that she'd chosen him as a second Umholi. If she'd known, she'd probably never have chosen him. She still didn't know, no one did. "Or maybe I'll beat her to it and just go and get Umkhombo! At least the kid has brains enough to outplay us, or were you too busy painting a target on yourself to notice?"

"You really think if we'd rejected them, they would've just left? Did you see them, how happy they were to take a bunch of kids to go and fight hyenas? If Umkhombo had come at us with them to start with instead of trying to go one-on-one with you, we'd be dead. He could still do it, if we gave him half a reason."

Quaji

 

[Quaji]

Both ears fell back as Bangizwe's eyes darted across Andhaka's irate face. He regretted him, that much was obvious. 'Idiot rogue', the tone, those eyes, they all said more than enough to get their point across. He ******** up. Bad. There was something wrong with how he looked back at Andhaka. It was a mixture of fear, of the realization of what he had done, of anger, of so many emotions that all it looked like was that he was going to collapse in on himself.

"Wait until the herds run out and the rivers run dry..Have you ever had to eat your kin?" The question came forward as the Umholi clenched his jaw, his mouth in a flat line. "Tell the lionesses that we were attacked and I fled like a coward, make yourself look like the hero, that you killed me for insubordination--everyone already knows that you're on top, tell them whatever story suits you even if it's the truth." It was clear what the golden male was insinuating by his choice of words and his movement to turn away from Andhaka. He was not suited fo this role. He was not worthy of the affection that Andhaka gave him, even now.

"Igazi lami, I'm sorry I placed such a burden on you, that I hurt you, betrayed you even. I am sorry that.." the words escaped him as his throat tensed. "--that I ******** up. My words were harsh, but the intent remains the same. Offer the lionesses my apologies, or not, I suppose it doesn't matter at this point."

Meepfur

I know your feels Bangi, I know your feels.

[Meepfur]

Yelling at him was almost as bad as hitting him - he barely argued back, he just rolled over and apologized and looked broken. That was not what Andhaka had wanted. He wanted to fight, and argue, to let it out and get past whatever it was. He didn't know how to deal with what Bangizwe was doing now.

"I said stop being a martyr!" The striped male strode over and cuffed the other, not unlike what Wodi had done to her great-granddaughter. "Since when does Simosihle believe anything I say? She'd probably think I killed you just to get more power and tried to cover it up."

"And besides, I don't want some other idiot," he growled out in a low tone.

Quaji

Poor Bangi. ;;
(Sorry for the extra quotes, phone typos. orz)

 

[Quaji]

Head fallen low, Bangiwe kept his eyes diverted. A string of 'I'm sorry's dropped from his mouth, quiet, a whisper, hardly heard with even syllables going missing as his head fell forward to place itself in Andhaka's mane. Did he just whimper? Maybe, at this point, he didn't even know or care. He was showing weakness that he had never known before as his mind shattered unknowingly to the pride and Andhaka was the only one that was going to see him like this. At least it was good to hear that he was wanted by at least someone, even if they did seethe at every word he spoke right now.

"She'd start trusting you when you start acting better than I do," he began, raising his eyes to look at the ruby red male. "What happened to me, Tirnen..." It wasn't a question he expected an answer to, but as soon as that name, that old name, dropped from his mouth Bangizwe went rigid against Andhaka. It was an old name, a forgotten name.

Meepfur

>8D

 

[Meepfur]

Andhaka's expression finally softened, though his body remained tense. He really, genuinely didn't know what to do with this Bangizwe, and was deeply unsettled by the differences in the other male lately. He was worried about him, worried for him. He didn't like worrying about anyone other himself, and previously he never had. Attachments were...messy. Inconvenient. Risky.

"Yeah, right," he responded with a snort, familiar humor working its way back into his demeanor. "I could barely be you, let alone a better you. Ugh."

He was taken aback by the use of his old name; it was the first time he'd heard it since Bangizwe had first come to the Bonelands, once they got away from the lionesses and been able to drop the pretense of being strangers. That name was another life entirely. "You got old." Dry humor, mostly-joking. But wasn't he old, too? Old enough to be expecting grandcubs, an intersection of his line and Bangizwe's. It would have been odd, by some sensibilities - his friend siring a litter with his daughter - but not by Bonelands', and there was something...satisfying about it. "You're not selfish enough. You worry too much about everyone else. Life is much simpler when yours is the only life that matters."

Andhaka had gotten on quite well that way, though somewhere along the line he'd clearly strayed a bit.

Quaji

 

[Quaji]

Laughter erupted from Bangizwe's mouth as he turned to press the side of his face against Andhaka's mane instead. "Old? Haha, I suppose I do have grandkids don't I? Did you know my granddaughters have been eyeing you? Great-grandkids, hah...Maybe you're right, I am getting old. Soon enough my mane will be all grey and I'll get kicked out by a younger, more handsome looking kid, leaving you to deal with him all alone." The old fire was working its way back into his voice.

The joking had stopped, his face growing dark again. "Tirnen, you think me not selfish? Perhaps I do worry too much, about the lionesses, about the cubs, about our future, but there is one star that I worry about more than those--" Bangizwe's superior weight pushed against Andhaka's, knocking them both to the ground in a tangled mess of gold and rubies. "We have only two herds to hunt from now, Tirnen. The crocodiles infest our waters. We are dying a slow death and here I am fretting about you. You who I would gladly trade my life for yours. I would trade anything to ensure you live." There was a protective growl that rumbled from Bangizwe's throat as he laid on the dusty ground with the other Umholi, but his amber eyes never left Andhaka's face.

Meepfur

 

[Meepfur]

"Of course they have been," Andhaka said matter-of-factly, but pride quickly gave way into humor. "Between me and an actual redpelt with a blonde mane, their options are fairly limited, after all." The conspiracies about him being part of a Firekin plot to take over the Bonelands seemed to have faded with time, fortunately. He had yet to catch wind of any serious objections to their latest Inselelo, either; perhaps because anything was considered an improvement over Emrys' coloring.

Andhaka grunted when knocked to the ground, but didn't resist. "Cut that list in half and you'll feel much better," he suggested, though he knew Bangizwe was as unlikely to turn selfish as he himself was to turn selfless. "Let the lionesses worry about the hunting and the cubs. Perhaps they should have chosen a better season to have them."

They had, of course, been involved in the fact that there were cubs running about and soon to be more, but it was one of their duties to give cubs to lionesses who asked. The planning was not their concern, or at least that was how he saw it.

He pulled a face at Bangizwe's declaration, profoundly uncomfortable with the thought of someone voluntarily giving their life for his. Would he do the same for his partner? He couldn't say for certain. It went completely counter to every instinct that had kept him alive for this long. He didn't even know what disturbed him more: that he couldn't say yes with certainty, or that he couldn't just say no. "Do me a favor and don't," he grumbled. "You're entirely too comfortable with the idea of self-sacrifice."

"We don't have to stay, you know," he thought aloud, despite being reasonably certain that his fellow Umholi would object on some grounds or another. "Umkhombo will come back sooner or later, he has to. Let him win, let him deal with all this s**t. We could go somewhere else."

Quaji

 

[Quaji]

'You'd think by now I would have learned by now.' The thought rang loud and clear in Bangizwe's head as he simply stared back at Andhaka's suggestion to just leave. They could. Sure their blood was here, but he had blood elsewhere and with his sister snooping around it was only a matter of time until they showed up. Still, he couldn't help but genuinely smile. Somehow the idea grew more appealing each time he ran the idea through his head.

"Now who went and replaced you when I wasn't looking, love? 'bout a minute ago you wanted to rip me to shreds and now you're talkin' about running away with me. So I lose, and you just quit, say 'screw this' and just walk away with me?" The sentiment of the suggestion rang through loud and clear. Andhaka was willing to walk away from everything for him and if that didn't make him shift forward so he could give the red pelted male a lick across his cheek, nothing else ever would have. In fact, it did. It was something that...had he ever done that before? Maybe. He couldn't remember, mind was too much of a mess. Everything was fuzzy.

Though there was a look of uneasiness hidden under all of that (weird) fluff that had taken over. Andhaka hadn't been the one to fight Umkhombo. He hadn't seen his determination to take the position or how Bangizwe had been lucky to walk away with the minimal damage like he had. He knew that Umkhombo would win the next match, whether or not the sunny Umholi threw the match. There would be no 'let him win' next time.

Meepfur

-THROWS HANDS UP-

 

[Meepfur]

Andhaka snorted. "C'mon, you know me. I only give a s**t about anyone insofar as it benefits me." Although he was very, very good at making it seem otherwise; he had learned early how to lie well, and it had kept him alive for years. "If we're dying slowly, as you're convinced we are, then why stay? If the options are 'leave or die,' the choice seems pretty obvious to me."

"If Umkhombo's got any sense at all, which he seems to, he won't come alone - he knows he can't take both of us at once, and I'm guessing that's why he yielded. He knew I'd be along sooner or later. Next time, we'll both be fighting." Thus far, Umkhombo had done what Andhaka would have in his place; given that Andhaka had taught him, it wasn't surprising at all. He suspected the trend would continue.

All of this open affection was...weird, and he wasn't entirely certain what to do with it. It was completely foreign and unfamiliar. He didn't dislike it, but while he didn't return the gesture, his suggestion likely made it fairly clear that there was something there.

Quaji

Last set of Abaholi kill each other, these guys plot to run away together. wtf.

 

[Quaji]

"Good to know that I'm still useful enough to keep around." There was a soft laugh that followed, but it quickly died in his throat. Andhaka had never been one to return much of the affection that the sunny lion had ever shown. Even back in the day, or that day when they had talked after Bangizwe had become an Umholi. Still, he knew underneath all of those words, under that confidence was something.

"Okay so say we run away, we just leave and let Umkhombo have the pride, where do we go? A couple of old geezers like us don't have many options out there. We're not young like we were before." He asked as he rolled onto his back, passing an upside-down look at Andhaka. "I'm sure we can't very well plan everything, but.." If they fight together, together against two lions as Andhaka had suggested that Umkhombo would bring company this time, could they even just leave? They'd be wounded for sure, maybe one worse than the other. Somehow he doubted Umkhombo would have any mercy this time around.

Meepfur

I'm pretty convinced the whole Bonelands is just a big ole sitcom/romcom