One-shot. What if Simba had told Nala why he couldn't come home and of his father' death? My take on what might have happened.

I own nothing. The Lion King and all its content belong to Disney. I don't own the cover picture either.

Simba's POV

I couldn't believe it. My best friend from my cub hood was here, right here. It's been years since I last saw her, and man has she changed a lot. She went from a constantly-pinning-me-and-partner-in-crime cub to just an absolutely lovely lioness, who still can pin me on my back.

After showing her around my home, it had started to become twilight and the last sight I wanted her to experience is the waterfalls.

"Isn't this a great place," I asked her. She's kept some feet behind me for sometime getting to here.

"It is beautiful, but I don't understand something. You've been alive all this time. Why didn't you come back to Pride Rock," she replies. I feel suddenly less happier than I was a few minutes ago. She can't know about why I'm here, but I have to answer her, somehow.

"Well I just needed to get out on my own. Live my own life. And I did, and it's great," I say, hoping my excuse will fool her. To add for it, I swing my body over a cluster of vines hanging off the side of the log bridge, getting into them like a vine hammock.

"We really need you at home," she says, putting her paws over a dipping vine. Her words only add more weight on my heart.

"No one needs me," I reply.

"Yes we do," she banters. "You're the king."

"Nala, we've been through this. I'm not the king. Scar is," I insist, trying to get her off this subject desperately.

"Simba, he let the hyenas take over the Pridelands," she says in a sad voice, dipping her head down towards the water a few yards below us.

"What," I ask.

"Everything's destroyed. There's no food, no water. Simba if you don't do something soon everyone will starve," she says. She's taken on a pleading tone now. I so wish I could tell her the truth. I wish I could be completely honest with her, just to pour out the pain that I've kept on my heart that has been suppressed till now. But...

"I can't go back."

"Why," she questions.

"You wouldn't understand," I reply cryptically. I get out of the vine hammock and back onto my feet. I begin to turn away from my childhood friend.

"What wouldn't I understand," she asks, her voice growing to another decibel level. She starts to walk after me, trying to look me in the eyes and to siphon the truth out of me.

"No, no, no, no! It doesn't matter. Hakuna Matata," I try to tell her. I have to get her off my back.

"What," she asks.

"Hakuna Matata. It's something I learned out here. Look, sometimes bad things happen-"

"Simba," she yells.

"-And there's nothing you can do about it. So why worry?" My words come out more heartless than helpful, but... but it;s all that I can say to her now.

"Because it's your responsibility," she yells at me. I stop walking away from her. A brief memory comes to me. My dad sitting beside me on the top of Pride rock, looking over everything as the sun rises. It was my responsibility, then I had to leave.

"Well what about you? You left," I reply, turning to face her.

"I left to find help, and I found you. Don't you understand? You're our only hope," she answers. She's begging me to help her, but my past. What happened back there, I just can't...

"Sorry," I reply. I feel like a heartless monster now. I feel lower than the dirt underneath my paws. I feel like the leaf and plant decay rotting on the ground below. I just want to die now and rot with it too.

"What's happened to you? You're not the Simba I remember," she says. I can feel the anger radiating off her like a small sun. Its painful. I deserve every second of it. I so badly want to say something to comfort her, to say that I can't come back because of my part in my father's death, though now I have lost all control over my words. My anger and selfishness hold them now.

"You're right. I'm not. Now are you satisfied?"

"No, just disappointed," she says quietly. Her words pierce me like daggers. I'm hurting her. I'm hurting her and I have no control over how I'm or why doing it.

"You know you're beginning to sound like my father." I begin to walk away from her now. Now my own body is against what my heart is trying to get out. Everything, my mind, my words and now my muscles are telling me to just leave her behind and to not care if she or my pride die back there. Her words tear me apart from what she says next.

"Good, at least one of us does." I stop, then and there. My mind is working overtime to process her words. It wasn't a question, but a statement. I can only think about the truth of it all.

I've been here all my life, leisurely spending all my time under the mantra of Hakuna Matata, completely ignoring and forgetting what my father had taught me. I've only thought of escaping it all, the pain, the responsibilities, just to avoid the hurt. My heart has sunk to the deepest crevices of my chest, hiding from everyone because I let it, now only to come back up and pour out its pain, spreading all throughout my chest and weighing down from the innocence and truth of her words. Worse of all is that every last part of this conversation, everything that she's said, is absolutely and undeniably true.

I feel everything I've blocked out for the past few years start to leak out from the cracks of the invisible dam, the hidden scar tissue, that has been hiding behind my heart this entire time. I feel myself collapse to the ground below me, the anger and selfishness I've had over me losing there hold over me, leaving space and freedom for my emotions to come falling out.

Then, like a silent, tremendous crack, I feel the dam break, everything coming over me like a flood, sweeping away everything in this path and bringing forth so many feelings and a thoughts that it confuses me to the point of that I just can't hold it in anymore. I shut my eyes tightly and let the first two evidences of my pain gather and stream forward, leaving clear, wet trails in their wake and carving out a path for the ones that follow.

I can't describe my pain shooting forward. I feel angry, sad, confused, sick and disgusted all at once. But among everything, there is one piece that stands out, small but strong.

Longing.

Wanting my father to have not died in the stampede. Having my name not stained on his death. Craving for comfort on my breaking heart. My lungs begin to ache in my chest too. I release the air stuck within there paralyzed walls. I hardly realize I have begun to sob until after I hear the shortcuts of air intake, punctuated by a new tear for every single one of them. I just want to be free of this pain and sadness that hurts me. I feel so drowned in my sorrows that I don't even realize that Nala is still behind me.

How can he do this? Not only to me, but to everyone else? I can only think how different he is from the Simba I knew growing up. How can the cub I knew who constantly bragged about becoming king to one who lazes about and decides to shirk his responsibilities to the pride? To the entire Pridelands!

It's been years since we've last seen each other. Everyone else and I thought he had died. Died along with his father. The day Scar told us the news, we had all mourned and wept for the both of them. Scar never told us anything else about it and to this day if we even mentioned either of their names he would lash out at us, with either his words, claws or he would send his hyenas to bring us to our paws in the humiliating gesture of submission.

My mother died during his time of ruler. With the hyenas becoming part of the Pridelands we were forced to hunt for them to. The lands died and the herds moved away, still we were ordered to hunt. My mother only kept trying and trying to make sure we were all fed and safe. She kept pushing and pushing herself, any food she received either went directly to Scar, the hyenas or to me. It was only a matter of time till she collapsed.

I'll never forget the day it happened. She had worn herself to exhaustion and had finally broken down in the middle of a hunt and never woke up from it. The other lionesses had taken her body back to Pride Rock where I had stayed back. Sarabi had stayed behind with me, not only to keep me company but to also keep away any hyenas that might try and prey on an exposed cub with no protection or means of defense.

We saw the lionesses coming forward. We meant to get there first, but the hyenas raced forward and right into the midst of them. They were always given first choice of the prey, but it wasn't prey this time. There were many howls of pain as the lionesses lashed back, trying to et them away from my mom's carcass. There were just too many and they overwhelmed them. When finally Scar intervened, then I saw.

They had torn her fur and many bare spot were exposed. Her body had many bite and claw marks on it as the hyenas tried to get to her flesh underneath. Her right ear was torn off and there was blood all over her body and face. Scar didn't even let us have a moment of silence for then he let the hyenas pass the lionesses and devour her. We could only watch in pain and horror for as anyone who tried to stop them get attacked and left injured on the ground. That night was filled with many tears and screams of agony as death once again passed on the pride.

Scar didn't even care for my mother, he let her starve and be eaten by his own hyenas. His reign has left nothing but death and sorrow over everyone and everything he rules over. This is why I left. I left to find someone that could help us and bring the Pridelands to what they once her.

And I found Simba! My best friend. The lost prince who we all assumed to be dead. He has come back. Why can't he come back? He can't be as selfish as Scar is. Have I even reached him with my words?

I hear him fall forward onto the ground behind me. I don't think much of it till I hear strange noises coming up. I stop and clear my mind to get better hearing on what the sound is. My heart sinks when I realize that I'm hearing sobbing and ragged breaths of air. I turn around to see Simba, lying down on the ground and freely crying into his paws.

Curious, I come closer to them. I also cannot help but think, was I the cause of this? Were my words really that painful to him?

I come closer to him and I see that he's crying hard and his body is racked with shivers. He appears to be gasping for breath between each sob. I feel an overwhelming feeling of concern for him. Funny how I've gone from mad to sympathetic in mere seconds.

I get down close to his side and lay down next to him. I gently placed my paw across his and stroke it gently with my last toe. He seems to be grinding his face into the dirt, like he's in pain from his now sudden crying fit.

We stay like this for a few more minutes, till he finally looks up at me. His eyes are red, the eye whites punctuated by blood vessels surrounding his crimson irises, Tears are still gathered at the base of his eyelids. I remember what my mother use to do when I cried so I reach out and quickly wipe them away before they can fall.

He looks at me with sadness deep within his eyes. I can't help but think that his sadness was caused by my words. I feel the urge to apologize quickly and sincerely. He beats me to it.

"I'm sorry," he says. I stare at him, trying to discern what he means by that.

"What? No, no, no, no. You don't have to apologize. It's my fault. I shouldn't have been so harsh," I say quickly. He cuts me off and silences me by placing a paw on my mouth.

"No, it really, really is my fault. You're right Nala, you're right about everything. I'm such a horrible lion. You must really hate me," he says, turning his head away from me.

"No, I don't hate you. Its just, you really aggravated me back there," I reply. Okay, so we're finally talking and maybe we can finally communicate and get somewhere.

I hold his paw a bit tighter and cause him to look back at me again. "Care to explain what this is all about?"

He looks up at me a stares, this time with pain in his eyes. I feel a wave of pity come over me for him. I keep staring and I realize that Simba didn't come here by choice because he wanted to get away from it all. No, he was forced to leave home. But why?

He leans in whispers into my ear, "Prepare yourself Nala, for what I am about to tell you is a sad and sorrowful tale of what lead me to live my life here for the past few years."

I replied "Please Simba. Tell me, tell me the truth. What lead you to come here and not come back home? You could have stopped Scar from becoming king, but why didn't you?"

She's asking me to tell her the truth. She's asking me to reveal my past, the one I've kept hidden all this time. Can I let my heart out this time? Can I trust Nala to hear me through?

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as the memory of the day my father died came into my brain and poured out into words.

"I was just a cub. My uncle Scar had taken me down to the gorge to wait for my dad. He said my-" I struggle to say the word, "-father had a marvelous surprise for me. He lead me to a tree in the gorge and told me to wait here while he got my father with the surprise. I asked if I could come with him, but he told me to stay there till he came back. I did as I was told. I became bored waiting for them so I started practicing my roaring and I caused one to echo across the gorge. Suddenly, I felt the ground started shaking and when I turned around I saw a herd of wildebeest running straight into the gorge towards at me. My roar must have caused them to start stampeding. I started running for my life and I-"

"Hold on a second, Simba. You roared and a herd of wildebeest started running into the gorge." she asked.

"Yes, my roar must have scared them into running down into gorge," I reply.

"I don't think that's why they stampeded into the gorge. I know that wildebeest are easily spooked, but a cub's roar wouldn't have been enough for them to start running," Nala explained. A moment passes before she continues. "And why would your father want you to wait in the gorge for his surprise for you? Seems suspicious, if you ask me."

To say I was shocked at this revelation would be an understatement. To realize that I had ran away for many years over a death that was not caused by me, this not only shatters my reality, but my entire world. I continue with my tale of sorrow.

"The stampede kept heading toward me. I started running and climbed up a tree to escape the wildebeests. My father soon appeared over the edge of the gorge with Scar. The branch I was on broke and I went flying into the air over the stampede. I would have fallen into the stampede, if my father hadn't jumped in and caught me before moving through the stampede and dodging wildebeests to get me to safety. He then climbed up the side of a cliff and put me to safety on the ledge. He would have gotten up with me to he hadn't got knocked back by a wildebeest into the stampede. I thought he had been trampled when I saw him leap up and claw up the side of the cliff, climbing upwards."

I felt sick as the memories kept shooting through my brain. It was torture, having re-think everything that I suppressed for so long, but she needs to know. I have to say it.

"I climbed up the cliff as well. From my view above my dad, I saw him reach out to Scar on the ledge. I saw my uncle reach down and grab my dad, but my dad's paws slipped through his and he... he-"

A few tears appeared in my eyes as I kept remembering that fateful day. Nala had begun to cry too. I decided to finish my story.

"After the herd had passed through, I went down to look for my father. I called his name and searched through the dust. I heard footsteps behind me, but all I saw was a wildebeest had had fallen behind the herd. I saw it head into the direction the herd had went and...and..."

I stutter before taking a deep breath for the next part, "I saw my father's body." I hear Nala gasp but I held my paw up to silence her.

"He was laying down next to the broken tree that I was just minutes ago. I ran over to him and tried to get him to wake up. When I couldn't, I tried to call for help but no one was there. I started crying and went over to him and sobbed."

Tears had begun to form a puddle at my paws, the dirt becoming mud. More of it was made as more of my tears joined the puddle, along with Nala alongside me. I felt her reach forward and wrap her paws around my neck. I flinch and cringe at the gesture, but I wrap my paws around her shoulders too, accepting the only source of comfort I can have right now.

"Showing sympathy for a murderer Nala? Cause this is what I'm seeing right now," I reply bitterly. I then felt her paw gently grip my face and move it so I could see hers.

"Would a murderer really shed tears for his father's death," she asked. I shut my eyes tightly, sending more tears to come forth. I feel then something warm squeezing me and through the blurry veil of tears I see a cream-colored lioness hugging me. I return the embrace, knowing I can be safe to admit anything around my best friend.

"Shh, it's okay Simba. Shh, shh. It's going to be fine. It wasn't your fault, you had nothing to do with it," she whispers into my ear. I look up to face her.

"Not my fault?! It was all my fault," I yell at her. She just remains calm and strokes my face with her paw.

"How could it be your fault. You were young and how could you had known that the wildebeest were coming. Besides, if anyone's to blame than its Scar. He's the one who lead you into the gorge for this so-called 'surprise' of yours." She paused. "Maybe he's more responsible for what happened than you think."

"Huh, what do you mean," I ask. She looks down and I see her shudder.

"During his rule, he forced the pride to over-hunt. There's nothing left, but we still had too constantly go out and find food for him and the hyenas. We almost hardly ever got any food. My mother, sh-she just couldn't go on and one day, she collapsed during a hunt and she didn't get up." She started to shiver and so I reach over and hug her around her neck. I feel her then bury her head into my mane and her tears start soaking through and leaving my neck wet, but I just hold on tighter to her.

She finally looks back up at me, her tears streaming down her face. I finally notice how she looks. There are dark circles under her eyes and she looks shrunken down. I can see her rib cage starting to poke out from her body. I can begin to imagine the things Scar has put on the lionesses during his reign.

"T-the other lionesses brought her home and then all the hyenas came running towards them. They didn't even notice that it wasn't prey they were carrying. They just rushed forward and... and," Nala stuttered and stared straight up at me. "They devoured her Simba." I gasped and she just buries her face into my neck again.I hold her even tighter.

"They finally shooed them away and I saw my mother's corpse. They had t-torn and b-bitten her flesh off. She was completely mutilated. Then S-Scar showed up and he just looked at my mom's body and h-he ordered the hyenas to continue eating her." She sobbed like a young cub, not caring if she looked immature, only trying to release her emotional pain.

I can only picture in my mind the horrible things Scar has done to Nala, my pride, and my own mother during his time as king. I remember Scar not being the nicest lion to the pride, but it doesn't mean he should abuse everyone just to get his way. I feel a wave of sadness and embarrassment come over my as I remember the fight I had with Nala about refusing to come back home and take back the throne from Scar. I feel ashamed for listening to my own want and desires and choosing to abandon it all just so I could forever live here under Hakuna Matata.

Nala has calmed down to just a few sniffles and tears streaming. I take this opportunity to speak to her now. I lean down and placed my muzzle next to her ear and whisper, "I'll come back home with you."

I feel her stop crying abruptly and she breaks away to look at me. "What," she whispers, as if what I had said was only a figment of her imagination and not the truth.

"I'm coming back with you to take my place as king of Pride Rock," I explain. I hasten wipe away the remainder of tears off her face. "I'm not going to leave you all to suffer anymore where you shouldn't had in the first place."

I lean in and whisper "I promise I'll make this right." She smiles and wipes away a few tears off her face. She suddenly pounces at me and knocks me onto my back with her on top. She hugs me and nuzzles my chest.

"Thank you. Thank you so much Simba. You don't know what this means, to everyone, especially to me," she says. I nod as much as I can. I feel nervous about what may lie ahead when I come back with her to the Pridelands, but I want to do this. It has been my birthright to become king and I will follow in my father's footsteps and do my best for the kingdom.

I just wonder how I'm going to break the news to Timon and Pumbaa.

A dead branch snaps under my paw as I walk through what once was the beautiful Pridelands, now the barren and gray Shadow lands. Everything I see is dead. Skeletons of animals litter the sullen ground that is just as grey as the sky above. The earth as dark and cracked. There is no water in the riverbed that splits the land. I see no green, no grasses, no leaves on trees anywhere. So much has changed while I was gone.

I realize how much I need to take back the throne. I need to make the Pridelands livable for the pride and all the land's inhabitants.

I feel something warm nuzzle the back of my neck. Nala and I have trekked the entire day to get back here. We managed to convince Timon and Pumbaa to aid us in seizing back the throne from my uncle. If I can convince him to surrender his place as king then there will be no need for fighting over it.

Nala notices my shock and breaks away. "It's awful, isn't it," she says.

I nod and turn my direction back to the land. "I didn't want to believe you," I reply.

"I have to know, Simba. What made you decide to come back," she asks.

"I finally got some sense knocked into me. I realized you were right and that if it was selfish of me to decide to leave things like this here. Besides this is my kingdom. If I don't fight for it, who will?"

"I will," she replies. She move over to my side and looks over at my eyes.

"It's gonna be dangerous," I remind.

"Danger? Ha, I laugh in the face of danger."

"I see nothing funny about this," a voice from behind says.

I turn around to see a maroon warthog with a meerkat on the top of his head coming towards up. I've managed to convince both of them to help me get back my father's throne from my uncle. It took a little explaining to do and a whole lot of reasoning, but they agreed to let me go only if they came with me.

"Hey, you two. About time you showed up", I say.

"At your service, my liege," Pumbaa says and we walks up and bows to me.

"Ugh, we're gonna fight your uncle, for this," Timon asks as he walks up and surveys the land.

"Yes Timon" I reply. "This is my home."

"Um. Talk about your fixer-upper. Well Simba, if it's important to you, than we're with you to the end."

I smile back to him before turning my direction back over to the Pridelands. I stare directly at Pride Rock. I have no idea what may lie there when I get there, but I know I am prepared to fight with every last bit of strength if I have to, just to make sure that my uncle steps down.

I feel a light breeze blow in my face. And as if a little voice carried by it sounds in my mind, I hear, "Good luck, my son."

I'm ready now. Ready to go back home now and save everything I've left behind all these years ago. This is my day. The day I fight back for what my father would have wanted. Today the Prideland's rightful heir returns home to return it to its proper place.

Well, what do you guys think? I've been working on this for awhile and I meant to get it up earlier, but I've been busy with school. I'm planning on doing a lot of Lion King 'What if's', since I've already completed my main story awhile ago. Hope you all enjoyed this!

Also I'm sorry I killed off Sarafina, but I really do doubt if we actually see her in the Lion King 2: Simba's Pride. I know you all might say 'Oh, it was the lioness who said "My have you've grown' during Kiara's first hunt"', but for me it wasn't the same lioness. And also that lioness had red eyes instead of green. Plus it made for an extra incentive for Simba to come home and fight. I've always did wonder how it would happen if Simba came home when Nala asked, he seems so selfish and lazy in the movie when he argues with her. I know he was hurting, but why didn't he at least be a little honest with her?

Please review and I might add another chapter to this. Sincerely, v.t.7