Raised by Lions

Chapter 9: The Stairs

Louis woke up cuddled in a warm embrace. Ibuki's arm was wrapped protectively around the fawn as the lion slept and it was where Louis felt safest to rest. He smacked his lips and realised just how dry his mouth was, so the fawn ever so carefully moved out of the arm wrapped around him, a lot harder to do when said arm was bigger and thicker than his whole body.

He jumped off the bed, landing quietly on the plush carpet of Ibuki's room, his lion plushie landing on the floor beside him. He picked it up and tucked it in his arm before heading for the door. Using the little step stool Ibuki kept for him, Louis opened the door easily enough and slowly started walking down the hallway.

He'd been living with them for over a year now and he'd learned the layout of the mansion pretty well, the nightlight Dolph put in the hallway for him helped too. He walked close to the wall, keeping his free hand on it to guide him a little more. It was no secret his night vision was piss poor compared to the rest of the inhabitants here. Louis hand made contact with an old rusted screw that stuck out of the wall, signalling he was a few feet from the stairs.

Louis crossed the width of the hallway and made it to the stairs, taking hold of the railings. They wiggled slightly as he clung to them with one hand while slowly going down. He feels like one day these railings will just fall off, but his want for something to drink was greater than his need for adult help right now.

Louis gasped as his foot slipped and he grabbed hold of the railing tightly, narrowly avoiding falling down the stairs. His heart pounded from the sudden adrenaline rush and safe to say, he wasn't all too sleepy anymore. It didn't help that these stairs were made for adult large carnivores, not herbivore kids.

He steadied himself and started descending once again. Halfway down, his bare foot touched something solid and soft and he almost jumped back in surprise. Holding onto the rail with one hand, he bent down on his haunches and stuck his other hand out a little ways, still keeping the lion plushie in his arm somehow.

His hand made contact with something big, warm and soft. It appeared to be moving, breathing. Confused, Louis moved a little closer and once he had both hands on the form, he could hear the breathing just a few feet away from him. He followed the sound and the form, only to realise it was Hino, fast asleep on the stairs. Louis laughed softly, wondering how the pretty lion had managed to fall asleep on the stairs of all places.

He sat down by Hino's head and messed with his mane, noting that it was indeed as soft as it always looked. He stuck his little hand in as far as it would go, until he touched solid structure, which was almost shoulder deep for the little fawn. He shook Hino's head a little in an attempt to wake the sleeping lion, but it didn't seem to work, so he just pulled his hand back out.

He was about to move around Hino and head down to the kitchen, when a door somewhere downstairs creaked open and slammed shut a second later. Two sets of footsteps could be heard coming towards the stairs. Louis listened closely, holding onto a strand of soft, white mane for comfort.

A set of heavy footsteps started up the stairs and a much lighter, but more clumsy sounding set was close behind. Louis recognised the heavy footfalls as Miguel's due to everyone being able to hear whenever he goes up and down the stairs. He was big and had a lot of muscle, so when he walked around, it was loud. The other set was still unnamed, until the owner of them unceremoniously tripped and cursed in the process.

"Fuck!" The voice yelled before a loud thud followed. "You good, Free?" Miguel asked, stopping his ascend of the stairs to look back at his comrade. "Yeah, landed on my feet... ow.." Free grumbled profanities in drunken slurs as he got back up and reattempted the stairs. "That's what you get for being so drunk, you reckless teenager." Miguel commented as he started going up the stairs once more.