prayersbemyguide:
“Will I be wearing the Imari Rubies?”
“No, your Highness.”
Nala stared into the mirror and fought the urge to chew on her lip. As Princess of the Pridelands and future Queen, Nala had been gifted numerous crowns in her lifetime. The Poseidon tiara, a magnificent display of Atlantican pearls and Olympian aquamarine. The Christmas tiara, shimmering red and green flowers from a holiday spent in Camelot. The Shining Sun diadem as a birthday gift from Kuzco, the Snowflake tiara from Arendelle. There was the Anastasia tiara, named after the lost princess, a stunning diamond crown in the style of St. Petersburg. Nala wore it to commemorate the lost princess’s birthday, a promise to return it when Anastasia is found. And of course several others for daily royal duties, kept in a chamber near her mother’s quarters.
Her favorite was the Imari crown, the silver lion of her family’s crest and stunning rubies found in mines deep in the forest. She would feel comfortable in it, like herself maybe. Like this was another ball. Like she hadn’t just fought for her life two weeks before. Finding out that there was another change disappointed her, and she stayed silent as her attendants pulled and curled her hair, applied makeup to her eyes.
The door creaked open and a man walked in, wearing the uniform of a butler to the Imari family. He placed a box on the counter and with careful, gloved hands lifted it open. Nala’s jaw dropped.
The older she got, the fewer choices she was given. For an event like this the gowns were picked weeks in advance, hair and makeup decided by experts. She had to be regal, but young, but not silly, radiant but not showy. Nala had been resigned to being dressed up like a doll for this event (more important than any event she’d done yet) but she hadn’t anticipated this. The tiara in the box sparkled gold with diamonds in delicate swirls. In the center was a lioness, beautiful and defiant. It was the tiara Sarabi had worn when she’d married Mufasa.
The tears began before Nala had a chance to notice them, to try and stop them. Her shoulders began to tremble and she sniffed, shuddering with each breath. One of her ladies in waiting, a girl from Olympus, draped her arms around her.
“Your Highness, it’s so beautiful isn’t it! How generous of the Queen. Oh don’t cry––don’t cry, I know you want to marry Simba but I’m sure the King will grant you permission soon. Let’s try it on, see? I know, I’d be at a loss for words too. Let’s fix your makeup, we’ll need to go soon.”
Half an hour later, she stood at the top of a grand staircase. Two guards trailed behind, an assistant held her cell phone and her clutch. She began to walk down but Zazu clutched her arm.
“Not yet, Nala. You should present yourself with Simba.”
He sat, stoic, in front of the vanity in the guest room ( he still hadn’t stepped foot inside his bedroom, so far no one had said anything about it ) as servants moved around him like bees to a flower. He knows they were presenting options, knows that he must have been making decisions ( although it was more likely that Zazu, who had been fluttering around him non-stop since he woke up this morning, had done all the choosing for him ), because he realized, somewhat belatedly, that he had changed into a suit at some point.
Someone slid a watch over his wrist, while another pinned a miniature version of the Kiburi family crest, set in gold with tiny diamond chips dancing along its surface, to his lapel. He allowed them to poke and prod at him as much as they needed, too distracted by the ringing in his ears to offer any kind of real help. He could feel his hands, dangling uselessly in his lap, begin to shake and, as if it was a reflex, he felt his eyes slip closed as everything he had fought to keep bottled up inside seemed to wash over him at once. He couldn’t hear anything, not the concerned voices of his servants, not even the sound of his own breath, over the sudden roaring in his ears.
The featherlight touch of hands on his face seemed to ground him back in reality, and when he slowly opened his eyes again he was met with Zazu ( fucking Zazu ) staring down at him, concern openly etched across his face. It took a moment for Simba to understand that the other man’s mouth was moving, and one moment more to focus on the sounds coming out of it.
“Please, your Highness, please -- Simba, please, it’s almost time.”
He took a shuddering breath eyes locked on Zazu’s ( god, as if he could afford put the poor man through anymore shit ). Apparently he had been hyperventilating.
A moment later ( Or ten minutes later? An hour? It had all begun to blend together ), Simba was standing at the top of a grand staircase, sandwiched between Zazu and his best friend. It was the first time he had seen her since everything that happened, and the thought made him suddenly, violently nauseated. He shoved it down, swallowing thickly as he turned to look at her properly. Everything about Nala, from her dress to the tiara resting atop her head ( and god, he couldn’t look at that for too long without feeling like he was staring into the sun ) was perfect and proper, because of fucking course it was, and he couldn’t help but tell her so.
“You.....you look beautiful, Nala.”
