After their night of fun, Kiburi and Zula returned to the clearing just as dawn was arriving. Luckily for them, they seemed to be the only crocodiles around, aside from Makuu, who was still asleep on his rock. Unbeknownst to Kiburi, Makuu did see him leave with Zula, and now knows about the dwarf twins as well.
"You good?" Zula whispered.
"Yeah, of course!" Kiburi responded. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"Dunno. Guess I just thought it would be polite to ask."
"Zula, I don't care if you're polite to me or not. Like I said before, I don't do pleasantries, and I certainly don't care about being nice."
"Really? Well then, if that's the case, why were you friendly with me tonight?"
Kiburi does not want to answer Zula's question, but that's not a problem when the silence is more than enough of an answer for Zula.
"Oh, I get it. You have a crush on me, don't ya?"
"No! That's definitely not it!" Kiburi replied, flustered.
"Yes you do! Don't bother to deny it!" Zula exclaimed, trying and failing to hide her amusement. "However, considering you're almost but not quite exactly like my brother, I'm willing to give you a little leeway on this."
"You know what? I take back what I said about you being decent. You're actually quite the little devious devil. Has anyone ever told you that?"
By now, Zula was laughing so hard that even saying "First I've heard of it!" was a challenge for her. After she managed to calm herself down, Zula took a moment to just look at Kiburi.
"Well, I should really get going before somebody comes looking for me and finds us," Zula stated. "I'm sure you could already tell, but I had a lot of fun. If you want to, we can do it again tonight, or tomorrow night, or something like that. We can talk and have fun and do whatever we want without anyone there to disturb us. Wouldn't that be nice?"
"...Looks like the two of us were right," Kiburi said as he placed his head on top of Zula's.
"About what?"
"You were right about being a professional regarding many things, and I was correct in saying that you were a little devil."
"Ha! Just shut up and get your tail back in the cave, Kiburi."
Kiburi wore an amused grin as he slipped into the water. Turning in his place, Kiburi faced Zula once more before she left.
"Hey, Zula!" Kiburi hissed, just loud enough for Zula to hear.
"Yeah?" Zula asked, turning her head to look at Kiburi.
"That suggestion of yours? My answer is yes."
Zula smiled at Kiburi's answer and nodded her head, then turned back around and left.
"Seems like you two had an exciting night."
A new voice broke the silence and nearly scared Kiburi half to death. He quickly spun around, and was absolutely horrified when he saw Makuu still on his rock, but very much wide awake.
{Oh, no. Please don't tell me...}
"Were you awake this entire time?" Kiburi asked, dumbstruck.
"If you're talking about from the point when you woke me up with your restless sleeping, again, to right now, then, yeah, I was awake the entire time," Makuu responded irritably
Kiburi tried to explain himself for whatever reason to Makuu, but the other crocodile just raised his tail to silence him.
"No, Kiburi, I don't need to hear it. It's not really my business, so I'm just going to stay out of it."
"Good. I mean, really? You're not upset or anything?"
{Shut up, Kiburi! Why do you all of a sudden care about what Makuu thinks of you? Why do you care at all about his approval?}
"I'm more so pissed-off than I am upset, but like I said, whatever happens between the two of you is not really my business."
"Ah, okay. Glad we got that settled."
Kiburi swam over to his side of the cave to get a good bit of sleep, but immediately switched gears as soon as he heard what Makuu had to say next.
"Although, you're not exactly getting off the talon that easily, you know."
"What do you mean by that? I thought you said that what happens between me and Zula isn't any of your business."
"I did say that."
"Then why are you getting as pissed as hell at me?"
"Because I'm not gonna be the one confronting you about it! And just warning you ahead of time, your pals Aziza and Azizi are even more pissed than I am."
"Wait, you mean..." Kiburi started to ask, surprised that Makuu even knew about the twins, only to be interrupted by another voice that didn't sound pleased in the slightest.
"Yeah, he knows about us alright!"
Kiburi didn't even need to turn around to know that the angry voice belonged to Aziza, but he did so anyway to see the twins making their way over to him.
"It's almost morning! What the hell are you two doing here?" Kiburi exclaimed.
"What are we doing here?! The better question is where the hell have you been?!" Aziza snapped, easily past the point where saying that she has 'lost her temper' would be considered an understatement.
"I was out with Zula most of the night. Did I miss something important?"
"Oh, so you mean to say that you ditched us just to be with that female?! Then, yeah, Kiburi, you did miss many important things, mainly considering the obvious fact that the entire time you were out with that female, Makuu was helping us finalize our plans for getting you two out of here! Did I happen to miss anything of any significance whatsoever?"
"Uh, guys, a little help?" Kiburi pleaded, looking over at Makuu and Azizi.
"Don't ask them for help!" Aziza snapped. "Don't get them involved when this is your problem!"
"Come on, guys, seriously!"
"Sorry, Kiburi, but this one's on you," Makuu replied nonchalantly as he shrugged his shoulders.
"No offense, Kiburi, but I'm going along with Makuu on this one," Azizi sided.
Kiburi looked from Azizi to Makuu and then back to Aziza.
{Of course I have to take the blame on this one. Great.}
"Well?" Aziza asked impatiently.
The dwarf female was staring at Kiburi with a stern expression, waiting as patiently as possible for an answer. Kiburi took one last look at Makuu and Azizi, both of whom seem to be sitting this argument out, before growling his response.
"Okay, fine! You're right, I shouldn't have skipped out on our meeting like that, but then again, it's your fault for not warning me ahead of time."
"I did warn you! We all decided together to meet last night, but apparently you thought spending it with that female was more important than you working to regain your freedom!"
"What do you want me to say, exactly? That I'm sorry for messing things up?"
"You know exactly what I want to hear!"
"Fine, then! I messed up! There you go! I said it! Are you satisfied now? I hope you are, because I'm tired, and am done talking for what remains of the night."
Just before Kiburi could move away, he was stopped by Aziza's next statement.
"Huh. I wonder why that could be? Oh, yeah! Now I remember. You were out all night with that female."
"Her name is Zula," Kiburi stated, turning to glare at Aziza.
"Uh-huh. Quick question: Why do you trust her when she's the enemy?"
"Aziza, maybe it's about time that we go," Azizi suggested as he tried to cajole his sister away from Kiburi.
"Shut up, Azizi!" Aziza snapped as she shoved her brother away from her. "Besides, I'm not ready to go just yet."
"Look, Aziza, how about you just back off before you say something that you'll regret?" Makuu stepped in - or rather swam in - clearly eager to break up the fight before it takes a turn for the worse.
"This is between me and Kiburi, Makuu," Aziza snapped. "I suggest that you and my brother stay out of it."
"But, sis, he does make an excellent point," Azizi interjected.
"Shut it, Azizi!" Kiburi snapped.
"Hey! Don't talk to my brother like that! Only I am allowed to talk to him like that!" Aziza exclaimed, now even more furious than before.
"Well, I am! So what're you gonna do about it, huh?"
"Nothing, other than ask why the hell you are, of all things, sticking up for that female?!"
"Because I..."
Kiburi would have said more, but immediately shut his jaws as soon as he realized what he was going to say.
{Crap! I did not mean to say that!}
"Because you what?" Aziza snarled, not immediately catching on to what Kiburi was initially going to say.
There was silence, and all of a sudden, Kiburi saw a spark of sorts light Makuu's face.
"It's because you like her, don't you?" Makuu asked.
The silence continued to last, and with Kiburi's lack of denial, the realization managed to completely seep into everyone.
"Are you serious?" Azizi asked, sounding quite dumbfounded himself. "I mean, not that that is a bad thing or anything, but then again, you don't exactly strike me as the romantic type or someone who is into romance and other related stuff."
"It isn't romantic!" Kiburi defended. "I mean, it's not really like that. I guess you could say that I 'like her like her', but it's not like there's anything wrong with that! It's completely natural if I for some reason or another gain feelings for a female. There is nothing wrong with having a little something for someone, right?"
Neither Makuu nor the twins said anything, which surprised Kiburi.
{That's strange. I would have thought that at least one of them would speak out about it, but they're all being unusually quiet.}
All four crocodiles floated in silence, waiting for someone to say something.
"Okay, then," Azizi spoke, finally breaking the awkward silence. "What do you say, sis? Ready to get going? Uh, sis? Are you okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. No, I'm good. I'm ready. I just...I think I need some time to process all of this."
Turning away from the larger crocodiles, the dwarf twins swam off, deeper into the cave. Kiburi watched as the darkness engulfed them, and once they disappeared from sight, switched his attention to the only other remaining crocodile. Makuu wasn't even looking at him, but rather at the outside, which was quickly beginning to brighten, courtesy of the rays of the rising sun.
"I was hoping that we could talk, but I guess not," Makuu suddenly said. "I mean, that is assuming you don't plan on sleeping the entire day away. Then again, you did seem to have a rather busy night..."
"You know what, Makuu? You're right. We are not going to talk because I am way too tired to do anything at the moment other than sleep, so let's just drop it for a while. Okay?"
"Whatever you say, Kiburi, but I'm not the one who's having a problem with this."
"With what? The present situation, or the past that you and the rest of the damn float ruined for me?"
Makuu didn't even bother with a response; he just kept quiet. Kiburi was unsure of whether to be amused or not. Either way, he couldn't possibly care less about what Makuu felt. All he wanted to do was get some sleep, so he climbed out of the water and settled down on the stone floor.
"Enjoy your long nap, Kiburi. I hope it's pleasant."
After hearing this, Kiburi raised his head to look back at Makuu. The other crocodile was still looking outside, but must have felt Kiburi's questioning gaze focused on him because he turned around to look at him.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"That last thing you said sounded a little strange," Kiburi replied.
"We all say things that sound out of place...and for some reason saying something strange seems to bring about disaster."
Kiburi felt his scales quiver at the thought of how much he didn't like what Makuu just said, or rather, how he said it. It was as if Makuu was in a trance while he spoke.
"Something bugging you, Makuu?" Kiburi asked.
"Thinking about something similar that happened not too long ago. It's nothing you need to worry about. Anyway, how was the night with Zula?"
Kiburi knew that Makuu was hiding something from him, but he decided not to push.
"It was fine," Kiburi answered. "Zula isn't as aggressive as most of her float, but I will say that she's pretty close on the psychotic border."
"Oh, okay. A little crazy girl, huh? Well, that kinda fits you. So...did you guys...you know..."
"What are you talking about?"
A moment of silence passes.
"Makuu, get it out of your head."