Kion x Baliyo headcanons? :3
i think of their dynamic as golden retriever and black cat; the golden retriever being baliyo and the black cat being kion. baliyo is this bustling lion full of energy at all times while kion is a little more chill compared to him, more composed but when given the opportunity will absolutely go full hyper mode
i’ve mentioned it b4 but a song I think really fits these two is rose coloured boy; a song sung by someone whose lost hope for this world who meets a ‘rose coloured boy’ who still believes theres hope and upon meeting each other the rose coloured boy makes the first person unwillingly regain her hope for the world
thats how I hc them both to become close. kion is going Through It tm and is just about to give up because no matter what he does none of nirmala’s methods are working. maybe he will turn evil. maybe thats his destiny.
and then in comes baliyo who is sort of crushing on kion by this time, but sincerely offers his own opinions and support
he thinks that kion’s giving up too easily. that from what he’s seen of kion, he truly has a good heart. maybe its been tainted. maybe its been wounded. but the goodness inside it will always remain because thats just how kion is!
he also reminds kion that if he were truly to turn evil the spirits of the past would never have chosen him
and after several encounters like these is when kion has his moment with the guard in uhh that ep where we see them as babies and shit
ANYWAY then once kion is fully healed, in my verse I think kion does go to the tree of life after sorting out the shit with vitani in the pridelands just minus the whole rani and him getting married thing. think of it like a retirement
so then kion, now better and healing more day by day, finds comfort in baliyo’s presence especially since he feels the need to give back to him for all the help he gave
baliyo thought kion would have forgotten abt him and so is very happy (and flustered) when kion goes out of his way to get closer to him
their bond grows and grows till they’re inseparable
baliyo is still crushing on kion but is repressing his feelings HARD because he doesn’t believe kion will ever like him back
he thinks that there’s no way someone as cool as kion would like someone as worthless as baliyo (his words in my hc, not mine I love him)
kion meanwhile is dense as bricks and completely oblivious to baliyo’s weird nature whenever baliyo has a hard time repressing his feelings
rani, nirmala, surak and the others are all Groaning because god how can someone be so incredibly dense
the three of them try to encourage baliyo to not repress his feelings and give it a shot because they hate seeing him unhappy
eventually tho kion does start to feel a shift in how he feels about baliyo
it starts with little things like baliyo’s laugh, his playful nature, his stupid looking hair that kion has somehow come to love, his smile, the way he always tries to cheer everyone up, how selfless he is and how child-like he remains despite all his battles
he doesnt realise it but he starts falling fast and hard. soon its taking everything in kion to not just grab baliyo’s face and kiss him silly
however he doesnt want to scare baliyo off— this being one of the few things keeping kion from confessing his love for baliyo
eventually he takes it up to mufasa who smiles— because he knows how kion feels and how baliyo feels too— and gives kion the reassurance he needs.
finally, kion plans something. he plans a date. a date disguised as a .. simple stroll.
I hc kion to be very romantic when he wants to be, so for their first unofficial date he sets everything up reeeal nice; theres flowers and he makes it so that it happens at sunset
baliyo upon seeing this set up gets secretly excited before calming himself down because surely this doesnt mean anything
until kion starts to talk to baliyo about how much he enjoys his company and all the things he loves about baliyo
baliyo meanwhile is a flustered mess and is trying to blubber something back because he cant let kion say all that nice stuff and NOT compliment him back andholdondidkionjustaskhimifhecouldkisshimohmyspiritsohmyspiritsohmysp— YES
incase anybody didnt get it while baliyo blubbers kion gets the hint and decides to take the lead and asks baliyo if he can kiss him :)
of course baliyo says yes and then suddenly the both of them hear noises nearby only to find out its rani, nirmala, surak and the guard cheering LOL
theyre a very lovey-dovey couple though for the first couple of months it took baliyo some time before he gained enough confidence to return kion’s advances x]
kion himself is pretty new to this thing (well, tbf, both of them are) but he tries to do the things he’s seen his sister and kovu do and some of them work out and some of them.. well, some of them leave the both of them awkward lol
they try not to let their relationship affect the way they were before but after the first couple of days kion couldn’t help it. he needed to kiss his boyfriend silly
the trust and bond between the both of them is extremely strong, not just after getting in a relationship.
kion helps baliyo a lot on his confidence issues, though there are times where he struggles to help due to his lack of knowledge. he mostly draws on what his own friends did to help him but it works only sometimes
eventually kion realises this isn’t something he can completely help baliyo in— but he does do his part. he wants nothing more than to help his boyfriend after all!
by ‘doing his part’ I mean that kion helps wherever and however he can, mostly by giving a lot of reassurances.
it takes baliyo some time to realise just how much kion loves him. he still cant believe kion actually likes him back, and it takes a lot of time for baliyo to trust that kion won’t leave him. won’t leave him like his parents did.
baliyo’s introduction as boyfriend to the pridelands royal family went smoothly for the most part— but there was a lot of overprotectiveness from nala and kiara’s side.
i was initially thinking of having simba be overprotective but after kovu I think he’s learned his lesson x] plus how baliyo’s family has always been close to their pride as well
nala and kiara meanwhile just want to make sure this is someone worthy of their baby son/brother, so it *does* take some time for the both of them to trust baliyo but they do grow to like him immensely :)
there wasn’t much problem for kion with baliyo’s family since they all already knew him though rani DID threaten kion if he broke her baby brother’s heart
in relation to the both of them being lovey-dovey, they absolutely have petnames for each other but the most common one is mpenzi / mpenzi wangu for baliyo, and meri jaan for kion (my love in swahili and hindi <3)
cough. shameless baobabfruit mention but for their wedding hazina is absolutely the flower girl
I know this technically isnt a hc but for their shipname I really like @dawn-sunlight’s ‘secondsunshipping’ idea for em since theyre both the second sons and I kind of made it a running thing for kion shipnames to have sun in them,, but it’s definitely still open for ideas!! me personally I have none but yea
aaand I think thats all I have for now! haven’t made an hcs post in this kinda format since my passionfruit post so this was nice :D! also made me realise how much I project on baliyo lmao. hope you liked these!! I don’t talk abt em enough but I well and truly love this ship <3 <3 /gen, pos.
