Kopa had agred to meet up with Zira at the entrance of the Outlands in the morning. His father was away due to kingly duties he had left unsaid, and his mother was soundly sleeping inside Pride Rock. The night prior Kopa had lied to her, saying she was going to meet up with Asante near the borders, but that neither of them would step into the Outlands. Of course, not only wouldn’t he meet Asante, but he had also planned to go into the Outlands with Zira.

However, he didn’t step there right away - he rested on a rock formation nearby, yawning a bit. As excited as he was about going into the Outlands with Zira, he had to wait for her - and he had promised not to step in without her, so he simply waited.

Meanwhile, Nuka and his mother were roaming around when the little cub decided to stray from her when she stopped for a drink in a watering hole nearby. In his exploration, he saw Kopa, and as they saw each other, Nuka decided to climb up the rock he was on and stand next to him.

‘‘Who are you, Pridelander?’’, Nuka made a growling noise that came out as pathetic even for Kopa, who didn’t even flinch. He had seen way scarier things, like when he got lost and found by vultures.

‘‘Hey, the name’s Kopa!’‘, the young prince scoffed, swishing his tail a tad. ‘‘And I’m the prince of the Pridelands!’‘

‘‘Ooooh! So you’re the one mama told me about!’‘, grinned Nuka, puffing up his chest. Despite his reaction, Nuka had never been told of Zira’s plans against the young cub, so he simply thought they were really going to give him a tour around the Outlands... ‘‘Well, nice to meet you, little termite!’‘

‘‘Heeey!’‘, Kopa scrunched his nose, though realized the fellow cub was simply teasing him.

‘‘Heheheh! Aren’t you a little termite!’‘

‘‘Look who’s talking, the rhino butt face! You wanna fiiight?’‘, teased Kopa, reciprocating the teasing and was just about to stand on his paws to pounce him when suddenly...

‘‘NUKA!’‘

The roar echoed throughout the air, making both cubs look in the direction of the voice with surprise. Nuka’s ears flattened, and he stayed still.

‘‘Mama! I’m here, I found Kopa!’‘

Zira soon emerged from the undergrowth, standing tall before the two cubs.

‘‘Excellent. Now, go back home, Nuka. I’ll meet you after I’ve... given Kopa his tour through the Outlands.’‘

‘‘Huh? But mama, we just wanted to play! Can’t you wait a little longer?’‘

Before Zira would growl at her son, Kopa sat down, tilting his head.

‘‘I- I don’t mind waiting! Please...?’‘

Zira slowly sighed, trying her best to save face in front of the prince. But that was okay... Testing her patience only gave her more reason to savour her revenge later on.

‘‘...Very well, young prince. But you may return before the sun has completely risen.’‘

Okay, so before anything, I’d like to say that the base for this drawing is almost one year old. I kept most of it intact, save for certain anatomical goofs I fixed. Yesterday I found two sketches of Nuka interacting with Kopa, this one that you see with both of them as cubs, and another where they’re both adults. I decided to finish this one first since it ties in with the events before Kopa’s death - they both get to interact and play around a bit before tragedy ensues :’)

In my version, Nuka and Kopa are second-cousins, since Nuka is the direct son of Scar and Zira, unlike Kovu. I don’t have a strong opinion on Vitani being Scar’s offspring as well, so that could be whatever (besides, I don’t give three hecks since in my version Kopa and Vitani don’t fall in love, but it’s w/e lol).

However, all the while this happens Nuka isn’t actually aware that Zira is planning to kill Kopa, so he’s quite oblivious to the situation and has simply found another cub to play with. The idea came to me after realizing that a Nuka and Kopa interaction is actually possible since I HC them to be the same age (unlike Kopa and Vitani, lol x2). So yeah, even though their interaction is short lived, they still seem to get along well.

I know there's a semi-official(?) design for cub Nuka... But I'm not a fan of it in the slightlest, it looks nothing like him, so I decided to design a more logical version lol.