Long Time, No See /./ [Simane]
@goingtosee-theworld
Jane was the last thing on Simba’s mind.
Literally.
After her disappearance, and that more than a little frustrating conversation with Milo, Simba had said: fucking forget about it, then. And he did. Because he was not the person to dwell on people who did not want to keep him in their lives. He did it with ex-girlfriends and his ex-boyfriend. He had done it with no one as thoroughly as he had done it to Taka, though.
But, Jane--it had hurt, because Simba had rarely ever had to do it with his friends. All through school, he had been on good terms with almost all of his friends. The closest he’d ever come was when he had to rip Nala and all his other friends out of his heart, because of his own delusions and grief and loathing. That wasn’t the same as this.
Jane had left. She had left and she hadn’t even told him goodbye. She was, arguably, one of his closest adult friends--a friend he had made all on his own. Which for someone like Simba, wasn’t that much of an accomplishment, but outside of Pixie’s--with Tink and Timon and Pumbaa--she was the first friend he’d made after his father died.
And besides all that, he loved Jane, plain and simple. He liked how small she was. How intelligent. He loved all the things that she taught him about animals and the world. He loved that she knew Swahili and felt a bit like that other home to him. She reminded him of Oyibo, but also of Desta. She was his Jamii.
Or, she had been. Not anymore. He had plucked her from his heart and shut the door, because that was how he dealt with the pain.
When the knock sounded on the door--Jane was the last person that he thought it could be.
Bowie and Simone barked and whined as he made his way hesitantly to the door, unsure who was there and wary. He looked in the peek hole and his heart gave a funny flip in his chest, but he clamped down on it. The anger flared up instead. For a moment, he considered not opening the door.
It was the last shred of love he had for Jane that made him do it.
Though, he stood in the doorway, stony-faced as the dogs poured from behind him, snuffling on Jane and whining at her feet, Simone jumping right up onto her. Simba didn’t tell her to get down.
“Jane,” he said. "Long time, no see.”
