Author's Notes: ….I've actually had this done –forever,- and completely forgot to post it, until I got a nice comment and remembered, "Hey, I never posted that other part!"
Sorry for not updating in so long; I get in the mood to write fic during the summer, but this summer I've mostly been gone on Spanish-immersion trip to Costa Rica, then exchange trip to Japan. Then the other end of the exchange and I wasn't at home.
…The point being, now I am, but I have college applications to bother with, which sucks, but I shall try hard!
Disclaimer: Not mine.
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A bird cawed rather loudly overhead, and Jiroh jerked awake. This was partially due, of course, to the burst of sound above him, but moreso due to the furry hands that were plucking at him curiously. He opened his eyes blearily. Monkeys. Big monkeys. Gorillas or something, maybe…he wasn't sure, having been asleep during the rundown they'd been given on the different monkey breeds. Whatever they were, they were lifting him up, clutching him in an oddly advanced-seeming cradle position. They started to walk, still carrying him. They lugged him through the jungle, the odd cradle of their arms cushioning him from jolts. It was almost like a hammock, rocking back and forth…and while it seems incredibly odd to say Jiroh fell asleep while being carted through the jungle to an unknown destination by oddly intelligent apes, he did.
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"Well, I was expecting a female, but perhaps this is for the better. He's certainly pretty enough. Your king is pleased. You may depart."
The small band of apes who had brought the sleeping boy grunted, lumbering off and leaving their cargo on a pile of skins draped over a wooden frame that looked as if it might serve as a bed. The one who had spoken surveyed him, looking almost amused. He reached out a hand and caressed the boy's cheek, something that might have been a smirk surfacing on his face.
"Yes, definitely pretty enough. That's what I had him brought for, after all, but I must say this all turned out quite… fortuitously," he murmured to himself, leaning down to kiss the sleeping form. The king was, indeed, pleased.
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Jiroh blinked sleepily, or at least it felt like he did. He must still be asleep, though, because he also thought he could feel warm lips moving against his own, and that couldn't be real. And a hand slipping under his shirt. Definitely not real. The air…smelled different, though. Oh, right, he was lost in the middle of the jungle. He should probably…wake up or something…
Jiroh concentrated really, really hard on waking up, and it felt like he did, but the hand didn't disappear. He'd woken up earlier, hadn't he? And there had been…monkeys. Lotsa monkeys. Carrying him. This seemed sufficiently odd to allow him to wake up fully.
…To a figure leaning over him. Huh. Maybe the kiss had been real after all. He rubbed his eyes, but the figure was still there. Curious. Very curious.
"Who're you?" he blurted tactfully.
The figure, which he now realized to be a boy about his own age, straightened, looking vaguely affronted. "I am Atobe Keigo, the Monkey King."
"…Oh," was all Jiroh could really think of to say. "The monkeys have a king?"
Atobe sniffed haughtily. "They do. And soon they will have another."
Jiroh blinked. "They will?"
"Yes. You are to be my consort."
"I am?"
"Yes… now stop questioning everything I say."
"Sorry. It's just that I've never been lost in the jungle and carried by monkeys to a wild-man before."
Atobe's eyebrow twitched. "I am hardly a wild-man. I am a ruler, as you will soon learn."
"…I will?"
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Notes: If Atobe seems to be rushing things a little…it's because he doesn't have much experience with how these things are expected to progress, the reasons for which are probably pretty guessable and will be made clearer later.
