#nirmala

Surak didn't know how he felt about Nirmala.

She had come into his life like any other animal to The Tree of Life: seeking for help and healing from the ruler of the Night Pride, in this case, his own mother, Janna. Surak had noticed how beautiful she was, and, as the flirt he was —not like his brother, Sãhasí—, he had tried to approach the new face in the lands.

He noticed, though, that she was uncomfortable with his advances, so he pulled off inmediately. That didn't stop his curiosity about Nirmala. Surak had overheard the lioness' talks with his mother, about the lands she has visited in her previous nomadic pride. The young lion, who had never left his home, was excited about the stories.

Little by little he got closer to the stranger. Nirmala wasn't sure about him at first but Surak was charming and didn't seem to be malicious, he was childish even.

They became best friends.

And when Nirmala, comfortable of having someone who wouldn't purse a relationship with her, finally confided the trauma she had lived on before coming to The Tree, Surak bow himself to protect her and never leave her unless she told him so. She laughed, telling him that once he found a mate, he would leave.

The day came when a new lioness came and accepted Surak's charms. The male was giddly and told Nirmala everything about this new female. His friend only laughed at him, saying she was happy for him.

Which is why he got surprised when, after he spent all the night talking with his best friend, his "mate" told him that he needed to choose between her and Nirmala and leave the Tree.

Surak was offended. How dare her? Nirmala was a must! He wouldn't leave her, and he wouldn't change his mind. Not even after the lioness slapped him and called him a nasty lion. Not even after Nirmala begged him to fix his relationship with the lioness, Surak stayed as long as Nirmala wanted him by her side.

And the seasons passed. And other females came. But since non accepted that Surak had Nirmala as his priority, nothing changed.

Surak didn't know how he felt about Nirmala. He knew it wasn't love. At least, not the one he has seen his brother had with his wife. Nor his mother with his father.

Surak didn't know how he felt about Nirmala. It's wasn't love. It was different.

And he was happy with that.

----------------

What if their marriage was comphet (or whatever the term is...it's blanking on me), what if they realized that they married not out to romantic love for each other, but because they thought that was the only course of action. That was the "right" course of action.

They end up connecting deeply, but it isn't romantic love, it's, at least a lot more complicated then just one word.

They both met each other at their worst, and they both thought each other to be their enemies. Then friends. Then partners. Then queerplatonic partners.

Their relationship goes through bumps, but hey..that's okay. They aren't perfect, but it's okay that you and your partner don't agree with everything. It's the aftermath that matters, that you two aren't screaming over each other. Even throughout it all, they will stick together.

Kion (...and to be fair all of his guard...listen man I feel like they're all somewhere on the aro/ace spectrum) never really had romantic crushes or whatever, but to be fair, he had to protect the pridelands, he didn't have time to question that.

When he left though, that's when he had time to question it. Simba and Nala didn't want to betroth their cubs, but romance and such were sometimes things they questioned their cubs about. I mean....neither really came up with anything when they questioned, but still.

Now though...Kion was not at home. He was already dealing with...everything else, and he was also beginning to question himself. More things happened...mainly Makucha and crew, that caused him to continue to forget about it.

All up until he got to the tree of life, where he was almost forced to stay away from guard duties for a moment to start his healing journey. He was yet to be close with anyone in the night pride yet, and he tried to keep his conversations with Nirmala professional or whatever, but one day, he asked her a question.

Do you need to have a romantic partner to be fulfilled in life? That is the royal family's duty right? To have cubs and continue the bloodline?

He went to the right lioness funnily enough. Nirmala herself is aroace, and she explains to Kion that no, you don't need a partner to feel fulfilled in your life. Nirmala has never had a partner and will never have a partner, and she is fulfilled with her role as healer of the tree of life.

During this conversation Nirmala also does let slide that she's had a similar conversation with her niece, Rani. Nirmala says that if Kion wants to, he could always talk with Rani about it too.

It takes a while before Kion brings that up of course, it's after they get "married" actually.

When they begin to realize they don't like the labels of wife or husband for each other, at least not in a romantic context, Kion asks Rani about it.

Rani explains that she's always felt pressured to have cubs, but she's never liked the idea of...the steps before having cubs. She would love to raise the cub, to care for a cub, but she doesn't want to have a cub...however, that isn't how royal families work, at least she doesn't think so. Many past rulers have supposedly felt like this, but still carried anyway, so she always thought she just had to tough it out (something she also just think she needs to do with most of her emotions).

Kion says he also feels similar. He would love to raise a child, but he can't possibly adopt a cub or anything like that. It needs to be direct relation, especially now that he's the consort of another kingdom.

So, they end up going to Nirmala together. They realize that they want to "stay together" but they aren't each other's romantic partner. Nirmala also explains that they can still be partners even if they aren't romantically interested with one another. She also explains that they don't need to have biological children. Janna's mother was adopted, and she was still considered the next in line. Nirmala and Ãnanda were also adopted by their mothers (they're sisters in my universe if you want to know, and they had lesbian moms). It doesn't matter if they weren't biologically either of their cubs. The tree of life is also very lenient when it comes to most traditions, five previous rulers have ruled with non-lion consorts, and their consorts and children were always considered royalty.

Rani and Kion are both very thankful for Nirmala, and they both do individual thinking before they fully take on the title of queerplatonic partners. But, y'know, as I said, they stick together throughout it all. They have a complicated relationship and that's okay.

Anyway thank you for coming to my ted-talk and happy pride month, also sorry if any of this doesn't make sense or if I repeat myself at all, I wrote this at like 2am and I don't care to re-read it

Memories always linger...

And this one might be a stretch, but it's possible that Nirmala's design might've taken some inspiration from these earlier designs of Zira and the background Outlander lionesses.

You thought I was done with the Night Pride redesigns? Haha no (I say this like these aren't from over 2 years ago.)

Rani and Baliyo are tigers. They are THE iconic Asian big cat so this is pretty self-explanatory. Janna is also a tiger because she's their grandmother and that was a pretty important element of both her and Rani's character so I wasn't going to change that. I genuinely think I popped off with Baliyo's design ngl.

Nirmala is a dhole/red dog! She already has a very pretty design so I didn't change too much, just a few features to suit the species I changed her to! Dholes are pretty rare animals and it was mentioned Nirmala arrived from outside the tree of life so I thought this seemed like a good choice for her.

Surak was a challenge. Coming up with an idea of him was why this took me so long. Canonically, he is Rani and Baliyo's uncle so going by that, he should be a tiger. However, I kind of want to have another animal as part of the group and iirc, him being related to Rani and Baliyo wasn't particularly relevant? So i made him a water buffalo! Least happy with his design because translating his design elements to a completely different species was a pain and I'm not familiar with drawing bovines.