AN: Why does everything with Tygra involved end up sounding like a sexual innuendo? Seriously, "Unity," though it can still be misconstrued, is not nearly so bad as the original title of "Bell Ringer." I was going to call this one "Stamina" but decided that that sounded bad too. Damn you, Tygra.

I think my husband needs to be granted leave soon, or this is just gonna get worse and worse. Although I doubt Tygra/Cheetara fans would mind. Though I intend to give Lion-O plenty of love as well because I like the love triangle idea and I still cling to my adoration of Lion-O from the pilot; not PMSing, Capslock Rage, Emotional Whiplash Lion-O from all the other episodes. Though Tygra will be doing a lot of cock-blocking, because, as someone on Tumblr mentioned "Tygra is good at everything; including stealing your women." Actually, they'll just cock-block each other. Repeatedly.

ArcaneLegacy is still teaching me this thing called "restraint." I don't like it. I want sexy-times damnit. Plot be damned!

Anyway, this was inspired by Piku-Chan's sister piece of "The Evening Session" which inspired the previous fic "Unity." This actually takes place the same day as "Unity," just….you know, In the evening. And after the Duelist and the Drifter which I decided could have happened during the majority of the day.

Also, thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed the first chapter of this and Saving Face. I love you all. You make me do happy dances. I absolutely do not mind how long your review is. If you want to ramble about pairings and what you love/hate/want to see, go for it. It may give me ideas. Or if you simply want to tell me good job that's fine too! If you want to tell me I suck… please tell me why so I can fix it.

Unity

Chapter Two: Heartstrings

Yumiko Kaze

It was early evening now. The sun was still bright and Panthro, as promised, was teaching the WilyKittens how to cook. The big panther was surprisingly patient with the kittens and took his time showing them how to clean their catch. Lion-O skulked around nearby, watching with an avid curiosity that rivaled the kittens. Panthro didn't shoo him away, just surreptitiously made a little bit more room so the young Lord could also see what he was doing.

Tygra watched it all just a bit wistfully. He'd gone on several wall campaigns with Claudus—Lion-O had been just a little too young to go along at the time—and their father had taught him how to cook and clean fish in much the same way. His heart felt just a little bit heavy at the realization that it was something Lion-O would never get the chance to do.

I'll have to show him sometime.

WilyKat piped up, "Hey, is it time for another sparring match yet?" He had just finished seasoning their dinner and had placed it on the fire to cook. Tygra estimated they had about half an hour, maybe a little longer, before it would be done. Kit had managed to cut herself whilst preparing supper. Panthro snatched her finger from her mouth and inspected it critically.

Panthro looked up from wrapping WilyKit's finger with a bandage. "I do believe it is."

Kit winced a little at Panthro's firm bandaging technique. "Whose turn is it now?" Her tail thrashed in excitement.

WilyKat bounced excitedly. "Tygra and Lion-O!"

Kit's eyes brightened, "Yeah!" Tygra shook his head in amusement. Despite Lion-O's less than gallant response to their request to tag along until they found the city of El Dara, the kittens still pictured the two of them like storybook princes from a fairy tale.

Lion-O yawned and waved a hand nonchalantly, settling himself on the ground with a thump. Snarf immediately curled up at his side. "I don't think so. Not tonight."

Kat's face fell. "Aww. Why not?"

Unable to help himself, Tygra added, "Cheetara didn't hit you that hard this morning. Ya scared?" Of course, he considered, Lion-O might just be tired. Tygra still failed to understand how a simple trip to get supplies had managed to take his brother all damn day. Quite suspicious really.

Usually, Lion-O would've sent him a dirty look and jumped at the challenging tone in Tygra's voice. Instead, Lion-O stretched a bit, closed his eyes and settled himself even more firmly on the ground. "I've had about all the excitement I can handle for today. Why don't you and Cheetara have a go?" Then he opened one eye and added, "Unless you're not man enough to fight her?"

Tygra was taken aback for a moment. What had just happened? "All right, I will." He frowned at Lion-O suspiciously. Something else had happened in that village. He was sure of it. I'll beat it out of him later. Tygra turned to Cheetara. "That is, if you feel up to it."

Cheetara laughed, as though the idea was ludicrous. "I've done nothing but sit around all day watching you and Panthro tinker with the Thundertank." She jumped to her feet and grabbed her staff. "I think I'll be ok."

The kittens took one last peek at the food on the fire, nudging it with a pair of tongs, before running to sit on the log with twin shouts of "All right!" and "Yay!"

Lion-O laughed at their exuberance and jerked a thumb at Tygra. "Watch out, Cheetara. He's a sore loser."

Tygra felt the fur on his shoulders stand up just a bit. "How would you know? You've never beaten me at anything." He unbuckled the belt he wore that holstered his gun and laid it on the ground. "I never lose."

Cheetara held back a smile. "There's a first time for everything," she said evenly.

"We'll see about that," Tygra growled.

After a few moments of warm up, Tygra found himself facing off with Cheetara. He rolled his shoulders a bit; they still felt stiff after an entire day of hunching over the Thundertank. "You know, I think I like this match up better. I can best Lion-O any day, but I never did get to defend myself this morning."

Cheetara blinked at him with confusion for a few seconds.

Seeing that she didn't quite get the point, Tygra put on his best imitation of WilyKit's voice, "Cheetara's a lady and she's a better fighter than you or Tygra!"

She laughed and slid easily into a fighting stance with a shrug. "Out of the mouths of babes," she quipped.

Tygra's eyes widened just a bit before he returned the laugh. She was playing with him! Now that was something he could appreciate! Who didn't like a lady who could give as good as she got?

Tygra clenched the handle of his whip in anticipation for a moment before releasing it and leaving the weapon at his waist. No. This wasn't Lion-O he was fighting. He would wait for his opponent to make the first move.

Cheetara appeared to feel the same, simply watching him from her ready position across the way.

The two stared at each other for a full two minutes, neither willing to make the first move.

Well, it sure wasn't going to be an interesting fight if nobody did anything. One of the kittens yawned loudly.

Finally, Tygra feinted to the left, surprised in spite of himself when Cheetara was suddenly behind him.

How does she move so damned fast?

When a blossom of pain erupted on his back, he decided it didn't matter how she did it as long as he could figure out a way to avoid getting the daylights beaten out of him.

He made several purposely ridiculous attacks in order to give himself time to think up a plan of attack. When he'd been watching Lion-O fight Cheetara it had been a little easier to see the whole picture and determine where Cheetara would attack next. While in the thick of things it was just a little more difficult. He knew he couldn't outrun or outmaneuver Cheetara, and Lion-O's defeat from this morning proved that strength meant nothing if you couldn't hit your enemy. Now it was his turn to show the Cleric a thing or two and he refused to go down the way Lion-O had. He didn't need to catch her. He just had to outsmart her.

Cheetara leaped away from him, once again easily evading his larger form. She laughed as he righted himself and Tygra growled. She really was just too damn fast for her own good. He knew without a doubt that once he got a hold of her the fight would be over. But she never got within arm's reach, always preferring to attack with her staff.

The staff.

Before she could hit him again, he grabbed the offending object on a downward strike and rolled. Cheetara yelped as she was pulled off balance, giving her staff a violent yank to try and reclaim it.

Returning to his feet, Tygra grinned at the dirty look Cheetara was giving him and let her have the staff back. He lost the smile when she nearly brained him with it.

Well, two could play at that game.

He removed his whip from his belt and unfurled it with a flourish. Locking eyes with Cheetara he winked and cracked his whip, fading out with his trademark smirk. She can't fight what she can't see.

Her eyes darted from side to side, searching for even the slightest movement that would betray his presence to her. Tygra took the moment to admire her as he stalked through the ankle deep grass. She was breathing fast, causing her chest to rise and fall rapidly. Her hair was mussed and he admitted to himself he liked that she looked as ruffled as she did. She held her quarter staff protectively in front of her in a position that could easily go from defensive to offensive in a heartbeat.

He pounced.

A slight shift in the air pressure must have given him away, because she ducked just as Tygra made a move, avoiding him as effortlessly as if he were in slow motion. Her body bent like a willow branch and she sidestepped his follow up blow.

They continued like that for several more minutes, Cheetara deftly avoiding every invisible attack. Tygra relentlessly pressed the attack, figuring that she would have to mess up sometime. Instead, he realized that she seemed to be tiring rather quickly.

He made another grab for the cheetah, catching only air. He narrowed his eyes and exhaled slowly through his nose. He'd never had this much trouble catching a woman before. Metaphorically or literally. He would be having fun if it weren't also so annoying.

Then it hit him. If he couldn't outwit or outplay her, he would have to outlast her.

Exhaling slowly again, Tygra calmed himself enough so that his breathing wouldn't give him away. The longer he stayed where he was the more nervous he could see Cheetara get. She hadn't realized he had changed his game plan just yet, so every breeze that rustled the grass, every new updraft was likely to be him.

Tygra forced himself to remain still. He had been the aggressor throughout their entire session. It would surely drive her nuts soon enough that he hadn't made himself known.

It took several minutes, but finally a field mouse sprinted across the clearing, displacing a twig in the process. Cheetara whirled in the exact wrong direction.

That's when Tygra struck.

The whip cracked through the air as fast as lightning. Ears twitching, Cheetara moved at the last instant and Tygra bit back a curse, certain he'd missed her again. But wait… no! Her arm and staff had become entangled in the whip and Cheetara stared at her arm in speechless amazement. Tygra held in his whoop of victory, instead using his whip to reel Cheetara in closer and allowing himself to become visible again.

Her stunned coral eyes held his amused brown ones as his smirk once again crossed his face. "Gotcha."

Cheetara struggled for a moment, testing the resistance of the whip. Her staff was trapped between their bodies, giving her no room to attack with any force. After a moment she stilled, silently accepting her defeat.

Smiling at his victory, Tygra cajoled, "So what were you teaching Lion-O exactly?"

Her eyes skated up, then down, and back again before she returned his smile. "I'm sure it's not something you haven't already learned."

Tygra thrilled at her willingness to play his game and leaned a bit closer. "Then you wouldn't mind a crash course?"

There was a small cough, and Tygra was suddenly and rudely reminded that they had an audience. Clearing his throat, Tygra released the whip and allowed it to snake off of Cheetara's arm, as he stepped back and away.

"That was great!" WilyKat babbled. "Kit did you see that? After this morning I didn't think anyone could catch Cheetara, but Tygra figured it out."

Lion-O rolled his eyes and scratched Snarf behind the ears. "He just got lucky."

Cheetara eyed Kat with an amused expression. "I may be fast, but as you may have noticed I can't keep it up forever." She turned her not-quite-accusing gaze on Tygra. "It's also difficult to fight what you can't see."

Tygra refused to let her make him feel as though he'd cheated. Mind games and strategy were as much a part of a real fight as strength or speed. "I wondered for a moment there if my invisibility was even working. You dodged almost every single one of my attacks." He narrowed his eyes. That was actually pretty suspicious. Perhaps Lion-O was not the only cat with secrets around here.

Cheetara didn't even flinch under his scrutiny. Instead she gave him a sidelong glance. "What one cannot see, one can still potentially hear," she pointed out.

"In other words, he's loud and obnoxious," Lion-O snorted. Snarf made a sound of agreement and Tygra glared at them both.

Kit was quivering excitedly. "If that mouse hadn't distracted you, you would have beaten him, right Cheetara?"

Cheetara shrugged. "It's hard to say. The point is, I did let myself get distracted and Tygra figured out that I tire faster than most cats. Exploiting your enemy's weaknesses is a valuable skill to have."

"So what's Tygra's weakness?" Kit cocked her head and looked Tygra up and down critically.

Smiling mysteriously, Cheetara held up a finger. "That would be telling." She smirked at Tygra then and he was unsure if she was just saying that to make him nervous, or if she had actually discovered something she could use against him the next time they sparred.

Lion-O looked like he desperately wanted to say something scathing, but managed to hold it in.

Kit and Kat looked officially confused and Panthro chuckled, ushering both kittens back towards the campfire. "Come on. Let's make sure we don't burn anything, kids."

Dinner was, sadly, a little charred, but with as hungry as Tygra was it really didn't matter. They had skipped lunch to continue interfacing the Book of Omens to the Thundertank. Finally, shortly before Lion-O had returned with the supplies, they had managed to figure it out after countless trials and errors. It was looking as though they would be heading out tomorrow wherever the Book decided to take them.

"Sorry we burned it," Kat said sheepishly, even as he and Kit tore into their portions with a gusto that had the adults flinching.

"It's still good," Cheetara assured them, handing them both napkins and utensils in a silent plea for table manners. "Jaga used to burn the bacon all the time. Now I won't eat it any other way."

Kat looked at the utensils and blinked. Almost shyly he switched from using his hands to using the fork and knife. He held them awkwardly and elbowed his sister, who had yet to look up from her food. Kit nearly hissed at him before noticing the silverware and flushing a bit and using her own. "It's really okay?"

Tygra was reminded of himself several years ago, having asked Claudus that same exact question. It made his heart hurt just a little. His next bite was just a little hard to swallow. "It's great. You two did a good job."

Both kittens beamed at him from across the fire and he couldn't help but feel glad he had made them happy. Kit swallowed a bite that had been far too large for such a small kitten. "Thanks! Panthro helped."

"We did it together," Panthro clarified.

Kit laughed and nodded in agreement. "Together." She returned to her food, slightly slower now that she was trying to use silverware.

"Like a family." Kat's whisper was almost inaudible, not quite a statement or a question. In the kitten's eyes Tygra recognized a faint and desperate hope. One that had been buried for so long that it was probably only a distant memory. Tygra's own memories flashed in his mind's eye so quickly it was only a few seconds, but it felt much longer.

Tygra didn't remember his own parents. They had died when he was very young. As the story had been told to Tygra, his father had died in battle and his mother had fallen deathly ill soon after. They had been noble cats and his father had been a personal friend of Claudus' so the King had taken him in, no questions asked. It had taken Tygra a while, after Lion-O was born, to realize that he wasn't actually Claudus' son. The King had always graciously referred to both Lion-O and Tygra as his sons.

Eventually, Tygra noticed that he was the only one with stripes. When he finally asked about it, Claudus had explained where he had come from, and that he and the Queen loved both of them equally. And for a while, Tygra had accepted that truth. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before he began to overhear when guards and statesmen occasionally talking amongst themselves that Tygra wasn't a real Prince of Thundera.

He remembered getting very upset about the issue and crying. He'd run and hid from everyone. He was seven and entirely too old to cry now.

It wasn't long before the Queen had found him. She'd immediately gathered Tygra's sobbing form into her arms, sat down on the cold palace floor, and rocked him like she had when he'd been a baby. After his sobs had subsided into hiccups, she had asked him what was wrong. He'd started crying again as he forced out, "I'm not really your son. Not by blood, anyway. Everyone says so." He wiped his nose with the back of his hand miserably.

The Queen had hugged him tight. "It doesn't matter if it's blood or mud, Tygra." She rested her chin on his head. "Love is thicker than both. Family isn't about who you're related to. It's about who you love. People you want to protect." She squeezed him again in her fierce lioness' embrace. "I love you. Your Father loves you. Lion-O loves you. You are our son, just as much as Lion-O is. Don't you ever let anyone tell you any different."

The fierceness in her voice quelled the doubts that had clouded his mind and he sighed, snuggling closer to her. "I love you too, mommy."

After that, Tygra had never let anything anyone else said about his not being Claudus' real son get to him. He had simply decided to be the best son, the best brother, and the best prince that he could be. And he had succeeded.

The memory had sideswiped Tygra so quickly that he almost didn't have time to blink away the unwanted sheen of tears that had sprung to his eyes. He rubbed at them, glad that he happened to be downwind from the fire. He could just pretend it was the smoke.

WilyKat was still staring off into space, probably lost in whatever memories of his own family he happened to have. Tygra felt his heartstrings being plucked at with a surgical precision. Whether it came from the fact that he had also been orphaned or if he was just going soft, Tygra didn't know. He looked around at the rest of the group, just finishing their dinner and knew that he would protect these cats with his life. He also knew, without a doubt, that they would do the same for him and Lion-O. Kat felt Tygra watching him and looked up curiously.

Tygra held the kitten's eyes for a few seconds before repeating Kat's words with a firm nod. "Like a family."

AN: This second part was a bitch to write. Tygra wanted entirely too much mopey internal thoughts time. I cut so much of his musings I have enough to make another fic. Which would make no sense because his thoughts were all over the damn place. He finally got his way with the memory thing at the end because it underscores why the idea of family is so important to him.

I've always hated the phrase "blood is thicker than water." I happen to be adopted by my step-dad and unlike Tygra, I do not have the best relationship with him or "his kids" for the very reason that they all insisted on making the point every chance they got that I'm not one of them. Thank the gods I have my mom. Sadly, for the longest time they didn't even realize they did this (so they say). Tygra seemed to be very well accepted into the royal family, but I figured he would have had a moment at some point in his life where he felt he didn't belong. I am really truly afraid that Lion-O might push Tygra away at some point in the series by bringing this up and/or saying something else dumb. Although a temporarily bad Tygra might be pretty damn hot…

Anyways. Please review! Reviews make my heart go pitter patter. They also tend to get me to write more, faster.