A/N: Just a little snippet that popped into my head. Probably movie inspired, and fluffy at the end. Enjoy. And I don't own Lion King, by the way.

Simba shook himself awake and opened one eye, scanning the dim cave around him. Nala was nowhere to be seen. As usual, she had woken up and left without a word to him. A growl of frustration escaped his throat quietly. She was always off these days, off with the lionesses, off hunting, or just…off.

Lionesses. Simba growled again. They had to be the most irritating creatures imaginable! They were always everywhere. Sometimes he longed for a little male companionship, but of course that was never forthcoming, not in his pride. They were always crowding around his beloved Nala, giggling. Whenever he came near, they would swat at him playfully and gather more tightly around Nala, shooting him suspicious glances as if they suspected he would try to carry her off. But mostly, it was Nala he was frustrated with. She was never there, always either with the lionesses or off hunting. It was the most irritating thing imaginable – next to lionesses, of course. Whenever he tried to confront her, just as his mouth would open to speak, his tail lashing with irritation, she would swat his face with a paw and knock him down, then bound off to disappear in the tall grasses. If she weren't a lioness and his mate, he would give her a beating that she would never forget.

His belly rumbled with hunger. He wondered if the lionesses had caught anything yet. He stretched luxuriously, sending a joyous tingle from the tip of his tail to the tip of his nose, waking every muscle in his body. Then he padded down from his roost above the sleeping heap of lionesses and cubs and blinked as the sunlight assailed his eyes. His tail twitching back and forth, his eyes spied a crowd of lionesses and his keen nose caught the scent of meat.

He turned his steps toward it, and his long stride brought him swiftly to the area. The lionesses glanced over their shoulders at him and reluctantly cleared a path, some of them laughing and butting at his side playfully as he passed. The beast they had felled was a wildebeest, old and probably not the best meat, but it would do. He fell to the meal and breathed deep of the scent rising from the freshly killed beast. It had been only a few moments when he realized that the area was deserted, and all of the lionesses were gone. The savannah was eerily silent.

He stood up and growled in the back of his throat, suspecting some…lioness plot to make him look foolish. But after several moments he saw nothing and returned to his meal. Just as he bent his muzzle to tear off a chunk of meat, there was a flash of tawny fur and he was promptly bowled over, rolling through the long grass with a heavy, furry weight on top of him. He snarled and groped with his jaws for his attacker's neck, but before long he found himself slammed into the ground with a familiar face, filled with mirth, staring down at him. "Pinned ya," said Nala teasingly.

Never had Simba been so glad and so infuriated to see his mate. Glad that she was not some upstart lion trying to steal his pride, and infuriated that Nala could humiliate him like this! He was not a cub anymore, as Nala all too often seemed to forget, and that she had done it with the aid of those awful lionesses was just too much to bear. He snarled and swiped at her with a forepaw, knocking her off, and stalked away into the long grass, his tail twitching rapidly in irritation. He heard the rustle of grass behind him, but Nala did not emerge. He tensed, readying for a spring that never came. He couldn't believe her! He wondered how he had ever fallen in love with the infuriatingly childish lioness. Sometimes he wished he could beat her silly, but she was a lioness, not a challenging lion trying to steal his pride away. He scowled as Nala's sweet scent, like flowers in spring, came to his nose, and she brushed up beside him, her weight pressing against his side, the forward motion ruffling his fur. He struggled to resist the intoxicating desire that arose at her presence and her scent.

She pressed harder against his side, and Simba overbalanced and fell down with a yelp. He struggled to rise, but she pressed down on his shoulders with both forepaws and her head leaned down to his ear. "Can you feel the love tonight?" she sang softly in his ear. He tried to swipe a paw at her, but unfortunately couldn't move his forepaws very far. Her head nuzzled along his shoulder and he felt himself relax as the weight of her body settled alongside his.

Moments later, Simba's last thought before all thought vanished into the haze of love that surrounded him was that he suddenly remembered exactly why he had fallen in love with Nala.