A young dark haired boy was wandering through the streets after school when he heard a strange sound coming from a dumpster. He cautiously walked over to the dumpster and slowly lifted up the lid.

"Oh no." the boy shuddered at what he saw

Inside was a small monkey with bright orange fur that looked more dirt brown with all the garbage covering it, the poor animal was shivering and whimpering as it stared at the boy with fearfully big red eyes. Despite the height of the bin compared to the boy himself he managed to push the lid all the way up and it hit the wall with a loud bang. Said bang startled the frightened primate as he started scurrying around trying to get away. The boy quickly moved a large box and hopped onto it so that he could reach into the bin.

"Hey hey it's ok little guy. I'm not gonna hurt you." he kept whispering soothing words to the little monkey.

As the little orange monkey started to calm down, the young boy slowly and calmly reached out a hand stopping each time it flinched and made what he guessed was a weak attempt at a snarl. This went on for like 10 minutes until his hand was now a mere inch from the monkey's head, it cautiously sniffed his hand for a few minutes before finally allowing itself to be touched and gently rubbed it's head against his hand.

"See...I told you I wouldn't hurt you...my name is Chiro." Chiro whispered softly as he stayed in that position for some time letting the monkey get more comfortable with him.

After some time he whispered again as he slowly reached another hand into the bin.

"Can I pick you up now?"

Of course the monkey was hesitant at first...until he slowly started to inch into his arms and Chiro very gently pulled him out of the bin and while holding it slipped off his jacket and wrapped it around the little guy. Now out of the bin Chiro could see more of the primate and can now confirm that 'it' is a 'he', and almost cried at how the poor thing looked. There was dirt and blood all over his fur, many bald patches with the exposed skin being beet red and looked like very bad rashes, which made Chiro think he was suffering from mange. He felt around his whole body to find quite a few bumps that just didn't feel or look right, he winced when Chiro touched certain spots. And if that wasn't the worst part, the small monkey was complete skin and bones, he literally just looked like a skin suit over a skeleton.

"You poor little guy who would treat an animal like this." The monkey was now wrapped completely in Chiro's jacket clinging to the boy's shirt as it whimpered. Chiro cradled him close before a smile crossed his face.

"Don't worry little guy, I'll take care of you...Mandarin."

…

"Freeze Mister!"

Chiro froze midstep.

So close!

He mentally shouted before pulling the hood of his jacket over Mandarin's sleeping face covering the monkey completely and slowly turned around to face the woman with long curly red hair and blue eyes and he gave her a not at all convincing smile.

"Oh...h-hi Ash...how was your day?" he grinned nervously hoping Mandarin did not choose to wake up at this moment.

Ash is Ashley Young Chiro's foster mom, she fosters another kid who is a total jerk to Chiro.

"Oh my day was just fine thank you…" She stood there drumming her fingers as she waited

"So...are you going to 'willingly' show me what you're hiding? Or do I have to order you to?"

Realizing that there was no point in hiding, Chiro pulled back the hood, a hand flew to her mouth, eyes widened in horror.

"Oh my God! Chiro where did you find this animal?!" She bent down in front of him to get a better look.

"And what happened to the poor thing?!"

"He was in a dumpster." Chiro snarled "I was walking home when I passed by it and heard him crying."

Ash wasn't sure what to say, she was still trying to process this all.

"What is that thing?"

Chiro jumped as he had not heard anyone approach and turned to see his jerk of a roommate. A 15 year old redhead with brown eyes and an annoyed look on his face.

"He's not a 'thing' Victor." Chiro growled while Victor just smirked

"Sure looks like a thing to me." Victor mocked as he reached a hand toward Mandarin and he did not react well.

SCREECH!

Mandarin freaked out and started wailing and swiping his claws at Victor.

"What the Hell?!" Victor wanked his hand back glaring at the both of them "Your stupid rat just tried to bite me!"

"That's because you scared him, jerk!" Chiro shouted back while gently rubbing Mandarin's back trying to calm him down.

"And he's not a rat! He's a monkey idiot!"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!"

Mandarin shrieked again

"Will you stop with the screaming! He's scared enough as it is!"

"You're the one who brought that mangy thing here in the first place!" Victor grew closer until Mandarin's screeching stopped him

"Will you shut that damn thing up!" He raised a hand ready to hit the monkey only for it to be grabbed by Ash.

"Don't even think it Mister!" still holding Victor's hand she started lecturing him while Chiro worked to calm down Mandarin

"Shh...shh...easy Mandarin it's ok...I won't let him hurt you I promise." He was gently rubbing his back as the sickly primate began to calm down...a little too quickly to Chiro's liking as his little friend began whimpering.

"Hey what's wrong buddy are you ok?" his voice shook as he moved his hand from the jacket to feel directly onto Mandarin's fur, or what was left of it.

He had to choke back a sob Mandarin was getting very very cold.

"Ash!" Chiro turned back to her tears in his eyes

"Chiro sweetie, what's wrong?" She put a hand on his shoulder

"I-I think he's sick!"

She looked down at Mandarin who did not look well at all.

"It's going to be ok Chiro calm down, we just need to get him to a vet." She quickly stood up, grabbed her purse and keys and led Chiro towards the door.

"Come on boys! Let's go!"

"What?! Why do I-" Victor was quickly cut off as Ash shot him a warning glare, he growled before following behind the two.

…

Luckily there was a vet clinic not too far from the house and they made it there in under 30min. When Ash informed them they had an emergency and the vets saw Mandarin's horrible state, two of them rushed him inside as the third started berating them on how they could let their monkey get into such a state. She was quickly cut off as Ash corrected her that he wasn't theirs and Chiro found him in that state, the nurse very quickly apologized for her assumption.

"I am sorry it's just you have no idea how hard it is seeing these animals being treated so horribly by their owners. But I am truly sorry for making assumptions."

"It's ok I feel the same when it comes to both animals and children." Ash pulled both boys close as she said that, for that is the main reason Ash became a foster mother, she wanted to help unwanted children.

"Young man?" the nurse was now looking to Chiro

"Yes?"

"Would you be willing to talk to the police?"

"The police? Why?"

"To put together an animal abuse case in case the owner shows up."

"You're not giving him back are you?!"

"Absolutely not! Now while we normally wait for the head vet to decide if it's safe or too dangerous for the animal to be returned home. We all saw from his condition that the poor animal was horribly neglected and I'm 100% certain that they will find signs of physical abuse as well."

"So what does that mean?"

"It's means that as soon as his owner shows up they're going to be arrested for animal abuse and the monkey-"

"Mandarin...um I named him Mandarin."

"Chiro." Ash intervened "Don't even think about it."

"B-but I thought-"

"No. Just because you found him doesn't mean you can keep him."

Well it was worth a shot anyway. Chiro slumped

"Aww what's the matter Chiro." Victor mocked "Is the baby gonna cry because he can't keep his little rat."

The nurse glared at him while Ash shot him another warning glare, fortunately that always worked to shut him up.

"Well can we at least stay until we know he's alright."

"Sure sweetie." Ash patted his head and motioned for him to sit down then directed Victor to one of the chairs on the other side of the waiting room and sat next to Chiro in between the two.

…

After some time animal control showed up to ask Chiro some questions, How he found Mandarin, what happened, where he found him, and where the owner was at the time. Unfortunately he was only able to answer two of the questions and explained how he was walking home when he passed by the dumpster, heard him crying and just spent some time there earning his trust, then brought him home to where Ash then drove them here.

"So no one was around at all when you found the animal." the officer asked, writing in his notebook.

"Nope. No one at all, he was there all alone." Chiro replied, constantly glancing back at the door.

"Alright, thank you kid." he got up and walked back to his coworkers.

Finally the vet stepped out and turned to Chiro who quickly ran over to him.

"How is he?! Is Mandarin going to be ok?!"

"Now, now calm down young man, may I speak with your mother first?"

"Foster mother, sir." Ash correct now standing behind Chiro

"So how is he?"

…

So much for Ash staying true to Chiro not keeping Mandarin...

The vet explained that Mandarin is going to need a lot of care, which wouldn't have been a problem for the rehabilitation center one of the ASPCA guys suggested taking him to...Until Mandarin finally woke up and went crazy on everyone and only calmed down once Chiro got a hold of him, it was made clear that Mandarin only accepted Chiro.

But she had to admit Chiro's already doing a great job caring for him, as of the moment Chiro is sitting cross legged on his bed with the bandaged monkey wrapped in an orange blanket drinking from a bottle.

"Ok i'll admit that's adorable." Ash cooed as she watched Mandarin suck happily on his bottle.