Simba's Curiosity

"Hey, Sora. What's it like?" Sora looked up from the pool of water he'd been staring at, primed to catch a fish. So far, he hadn't had much luck. Simba had been trying to teach him how, but it didn't seem like something he was ever going to be good at. At least not with paws.

"What's what like?" Simba rolled onto his back, batting at a piece of tall grass.

"Where you come from. Don't the older lions teach their young how to fish?" Sora sat up, plopping down on his haunches with a weary sigh.

"Er, no, not really." Simba gave him an incredulous look and flipped back over, leaning closer to Sora with infinitely curious eyes.

"Really? Why? Don't you have any fish?" Sora scratched his ear with a hind paw, trying to figure out how to explain this to Simba without breaking the rules.

"Well, um, we…barter for our fish." Simba looked confused.

"Barter? What's that?"

"We trade other things to get fish." Simba nodded and glanced at the water. Quicker than Sora's eyes could follow, his paw had darted forward and he scooped a fish right out of the river, threw it up into the air, and caught in his mouth. Sora scowled.

"Showoff." Simba waggled his eyebrows and tried to speak, but with a mouth full of dead fish, words don't really work out so well. Sora laughed loudly at his friend's crazy antics and pushed himself to his feet. Simba followed him as they walked through the taller grass and out onto the plain, smaller animals scattering in their wake.

"You know, I'm not really all that young. I'm almost a grown-up," Sora said, leaping on top of a rock. Simba's eyes widened and he spat the fish out.

"What? That's crazy, I mean you're so... " Sora gave him a challenging look, and Simba quickly changed tactics. " If you're almost full grown, does that mean you're some kind of weird species of dwarf lion?" Sora snickered as he crouched down, butt wriggling in the air as he poised to pounce on a big beetle crawling towards him. He made a fantastic leap towards it and would have caught it had it not flown away at the last second. The brown cub peeked between his paws and groaned with despair when he saw his prize had escaped him.

"No, I'm not a dwarf. I don't really know why I'm so small here, to be honest. It kind of sucks." Simba nodded absently as he sat down and began to dissect his fish, grasping it between his paws before ripping the flesh away from the bone. Sora watched with a kind of fascinated disgust as Simba gulped down the raw meat.

"And I still don't get with that thing is for," Simba muttered, gesturing towards the necklace dangling against Sora's chest. Sora rolled his eyes; they had to have had this conversation at least a hundred times already.

"I told you, it's decoration." Simba scoffed softly as he broke the fish's spine with a soft snap, bone splintering in his powerful jaws. Sora suddenly felt mildly nauseous.

"What's the matter Sora, don't you think you're pretty enough?" Simba mocked, and Sora growled in response, sinking down into a hunting stance on top of his rock. Simba looked highly amused at this, tail flipping back and forth expectantly. Sora pounced…

…and Simba ducked.

Sora went rolling through the grass, scaring a small flock of birds in the process. It wasn't until he rolled down an entire hill and back into the river did he come to a stop. Simba's uproarious laughter followed him as he loped down the hill to where Sora sat in the shallows, spluttering and coughing.

"Sorry, Sora," Simba managed to gasp, reaching over to grab Sora by the scruff of his neck with his teeth and pulling him out of the water. Sora was set down on the bank, dripping wet and slightly humiliated. He couldn't even see; his hair had slicked down in front of his eyes and he couldn't really move it. Sighing deeply, he stood and shook, flinging water straight into Simba's face. Simba leapt back, straight into the water. They both laughed at each other's foolishness, when suddenly Zazu came fluttering down towards them, landing on Simba's head.

"Sire, your presence is required. We have a pair of angry rhinoceri who are about to get into a very destructive fight, and they seem incapable of listening to anyone. Other than each other's insults, that is." Simba sighed and slowly hauled himself ashore. Sora walked along with him as they headed back towards Pride Rock, the air tense. Sora wasn't quite sure what to say. It was obvious from his expression and the slump of his shoulders that Simba didn't want to have to go.

"It's a lot of responsibility, huh?" Simba glanced down at him.

"Yeah. A lot of pain in the-"

"Sire!"

"-too." Simba glared sullenly up at the bird roosting on his head. Sora repressed the urge to laugh.

"I know what you mean. It's a lot of work to take care of other people." Simba looked down in surprise, and then his expression cleared into comprehension.

"Sorry, sometimes I forget that you have responsibilities too, Sora. You just seem so at ease with it all." Sora laughed dryly.

"Yeah, right. Half the time I have no clue what I'm doing, or even if I have the right reasons for doing what I do." Simba's heavy paw nearly knocked Sora off his feet when it landed on his head.

"Sora, of all the people I know, your reasons are the most righteous." Sora smiled, ducking underneath Simba's paw and galloping ahead a bit.

"Race ya!" Simba laughed and hurried to catch up, Zazu squawking his protests the whole time.

~-~-~-~

"Ouch, stop that!" Simba hollered, his voice echoing around the cave. Rafiki rolled his eyes and continued to probe at his wound with his spindly fingers while Sora, Donald and Goofy watched.

"I really-ow- need a vacation from all this-Rafiki, you crazy old fart, that hurts!"

"Ahah! There it is!" Rafiki finally pulled the shard of rhino horn from Simba's side, and Donald quickly cured the lion king with a spell. Simba shifted to prop himself up on his elbows, staring at the spot.

"Wow." Sora shook his head.

"I can't believe that rhino charged you." Simba scowled as he pushed himself to his feet.

"I can't believe he actually hit me. I didn't think he'd turn towards me when I jumped out of the way." Sora bit his lip, contemplating an idea he had.

"You really want a vacation from this?" Simba blinked, looking slightly perplexed.

"Um, yeah. I just nearly got gored by a rhinoceros. I think it's time for a break." Sora glanced at Donald to see if he'd been caught yet. Nope; he looked confused as well. If Goofy knew where he was going with this, he certainly didn't let on. Sora proceeded.

"So you have someone that could rule in your place for a while?" Simba nodded.

"Zazu and Nala could work something out, I think. If they don't mind."

"Alright then. How would you like to come to my home for a while?" This was the point at which Donald began to shriek loudly.

"Sora! You know you can't take people away from their own world without serious consequences! Besides, it's against the rules!" Sora frowned, making the cutest puppy dog eyes he could.

"Come on, Donald! What's the worst that could happen? We're only going to go back to Destiny Islands, where's the harm in that?" Donald couldn't really argue with that, though he certainly tried to. Destiny Islands was currently the safest place to be, seeing as Sora, Riku, and Kairi were there most of the time. Heartless didn't even show up there anymore. Eventually, Donald was defeated, Nala and Zazu were given temporary authority over the Pride Lands, and Simba was in their ship, staring at all the funny colored surfaces.

"Everything's so…squishy." Sora snickered and hopped up onto a chair as Donald and Goofy prepared to take off. The Gummy Ship roared to life, making Simba jump and fold back his ears, hissing softly. Sora explained to him that it was just a noise the engine made and that it wasn't trying to threaten him. Simba accepted the explanation, though his folded ears and swishing tail showed that he was still ill at ease. They had just pulled away from the Pride Lands when Goofy said,

"Uh, Donald? Shouldn't you activate that spell-a-ma-jig you set up?" Donald nodded and smiled widely.

"You're right Goofy! Thanks for reminding me." Donald's wing reached out to slap a big green button on the control panel. Four bolts of magic flashed from the ceiling, hitting each occupant right on the noggin.

The pending result was not exactly the one desired, to say it nicely.

Donald, Goofy, and Sora were back to their original forms, sure. That wasn't the problem. The problem started when Simba screamed.

Not roared. Screamed.

"Sora! You're…you're…!" Sora glanced back to where Simba had been sitting, only to find in his place the most surprising, and oddly pleasant sight Sora had seen in a while.

A gorgeous, redheaded wild man sat naked on the floor where Simba once had, amber eyes round with shock as he pointed at Sora. His long hair fell nearly to his shoulders, framing his face in a lazy, open way. His strong features would have seemed rather cruel-looking if his eyes hadn't held such innocence and warmth, even horror-struck as they were. And there was a rather cute dimple in his chin. Odd how you can notice those kind of things with only a cursory glance. With another, slightly longer glance, Sora took in the long, athletic body, firm muscles deliciously sculpted under tan flesh. And…oh, dear Lord. No clothes. Sora looked slightly over the redhead's shoulder and said,

"Donald? I think we have a problem."

AN: Haha, plot bunnies spurred this on. So, what do you guys think? I rather like the idea of Simba being human. I think he'd be smexy. XD Oh, and there will be SimbaxSora STUFFZ in here, if ya noe what i meanz. XD REVIEW.