The next day, Simba went off on his own for a bit while the other three were just singing and walking along.

[PUMBAA (REPEATEDLY):]

"Ohi'mbube

Ohi'mbube"

[Y/N:]

"In the jungle

The mighty jungle

The lion sleeps tonight."

[TIMON:]

"In the jungle

The mighty jungle

The lion sleeps..."

"We can't hear you, buddy, back us up!" Timon shouted.

[Y/N & TIMON:]

"A-WEEEE-ee-EE-ee ba-Pum-ba-bum-ba-way"

But then they noticed Pumbaa had wandered off.

"A-Pumbaa? Pumbaa?" Timon called.

"Where'd he go?" Y/N wondered.

Pumbaa had been stalking a blue beetle, hiding when he thought he would get caught. As he kept after it, he thought he heard a twig snap.

"Timon? Y/N?" Pumbaa wondered, a little spooked.

He listened for a minute before shrugging and getting over the log and eying the bug. It then flew off and Pumbaa noticed a lioness stalking him in the tall grass. He screamed as she charged at him and he ran for his life as the lioness was chasing him.

"Pumbaa?" Timon questioned.

"Uh oh," Y/N said before they took off to find their warthog friend.

Pumbaa ran around a tree to trip up the lioness, but it didn't work.

"Pumbaa!" the meerkats called.

It then finally got to a point where Pumbaa got stuck under a root when the two meerkats found him.

"Pumbaa! Pumbaa!" Timon said.

"Hey, what's goin' on?" Y/N asked.

"SHE'S GONNA EAT ME!" Pumbaa screamed.

"Huh?" Timon questioned.

They then looked over the root to see the lioness coming for them at top speed.

"Woah!" he exclaimed then started to say while he and Y/N tried to push him out before screaming "Jeez! Why do I always have to save your AAAAAA!"

"HELP!" Y/N shouted.

At that, Simba leapt over the root and pounced on the lioness, but she got out of his grip and they fought.

"Don't worry, buddy. We're here for ya. Everything's gonna be okay," Timon assured to Pumbaa then cheered to Simba, "Get her! Bite her head!"

"Come on, Simba!" Y/N encouraged.

The fight progressed as they tried to one up the other.

"Go for the jugular. The jugular!" Timon shouted to Simba then remarked to Pumbaa, "See, I told you he'd come in handy."

"Of course you did," Y/N responded with a slight eye roll and smile.

It was then Simba pounced on the lioness, who bounced back up and pinned him. This surprised him since there was only one lioness who could do that.

"Nala?" he asked.

The lioness stopped growling and got off him, backing up in surprise.

"Is it really you?" Simba continued.

"Who are you?" Nala questioned.

"It's me. Simba," he told her.

"Simba?" she asked, he nodded, then she exclaimed in pure joy, "Whoa!"

They then greeted each other in happiness, confusing the meerkats.

"Well how did you../How did you..." they both exclaimed.

"Wow!" Simba cheered.

"Where'd you come from?" Nala asked.

"This is cool! It's great to see you!" Simba told her.

"It's great to see YOU!" Nala returned.

"Hey, what's goin' on here?" Timon asked as he and Y/N got in the middle of them.

"What are you doing here?" Simba wondered, not hearing Timon.

"What do you mean, 'What am I doing here?' What are you doing here?" Nala said.

"Um, guys?" Y/N called.

"HEY! WHAT'S GOIN' ON HERE!?!?!" Timon shouted, getting their attention.

"Timon, Y/N, this is Nala. She's my best friend!" Simba introduce happily.

"'Friend'?!?" Timon asked, very confused.

"Yeah," Simba answered.

"So this is the friend you told me about a while back?" Y/N wondered.

"It is," Simba nodded.

"Great to meet you. I'm Y/N and this is Timon," Y/N smiled at the lioness.

"Nice to meet you both," Nala told her.

"Hey, Pumbaa, come over here," Simba called over, Pumbaa got himself unstuck, then Simba introduced, "Nala, this is Pumbaa. Pumbaa, Nala."

"Pleased to make your acquaintance," Pumbaa smiled.

"The pleasure's all mine," Nala returned.

"How do you do--" Timon started. then pointed out, yelling at the end, "Whoa! Whoa. Time out.. Lemme get this straight. You know her. She knows you. But she wants to eat him. And everybody's...okay with this? DID I MISS SOMETHING?!?"

"Relax, Timon," Y/N said, rubbing his back.

"Wait till everybody finds out you've been here all this time! And your mother..." Nala replied, making Simba double back a bit, then she continued, "What will she think?"

"She doesn't have to know. Nobody has to know," Simba answered.

"Well, of course they do. Everyone thinks you're dead," Nala informed.

"They do?" Simba wondered.

"Yeah. Scar told us about the stampede," Nala said.

"He did?" Simba questioned then asked, "Well...what else did he tell you?"

"What else matters? You're alive. and that means..." Nala started, realized something, then finished, "you're the king."

"King? Pbbb. Lady, have you got your lions crossed," Timon scoffed.

"King? Your Majesty! I gravel at your feet," Pumbaa replied overdramatically then noisily kissed Simba's paw.

"Stop it," Simba told him, taking his paw back.

"It's not 'gravel', it's 'grovel'. And DON'T-- he's not the king," Timo remarked to Pumbaa then asked Simba, "Are ya?"

"No," Simba answered.

"Simba?" Nala questioned.

"No, I'm not the king. Maybe I was gonna be, but that was a long time ago," Simba pointed out.

"But wait. If you're the king, what you said that night about the great kings makes sense. But you never told us?" Y/N explained.

"Look, I'm still the same guy," Simba assured.

"But with power!" Timon added enthusiastically.

"Could you guys...excuse us for a few minutes?" Nala requested.

"Sure," Y/N nodded and started walking.

"Hey, whatever she has to say, she can say in front of us," Timon declared then asked, "Right, Simba?"

"Hmm. Maybe you'd better go," Simba suggested.

Timon was speechless before saying before leaving, "It starts. You think you know a guy."

Pumbaa sighed as Y/N went over to them.

"Come on, you two," she urged.

As she got them out, Y/N and Simba looked at each other and she smirked and winked at him before indicating to Nala, making him a little flustered. She giggled at that before joining Timon and Pumbaa.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~