#monkey tails

He was never a heavy sleeper; he didn't sleep much at all if he was being honest. He was used to staying awake to watch for any sneaky demons looking to become immortal. That time has long since passed, but the habit stayed. Granted, he started sleeping more during daylight hours when he wasn't too busy with ruling over Flowerfruit. This might be why he was stirred from his slumber by a slight shift made by the monkey he recently started sharing a space with.

He had to admit, he preferred the traveler awake when the two could chat away about their respective homes. The calm quiet of the squirrel monkey was a complete 180 of the normal chatter that seemed to flow uninterrupted from the primate's mouth. He had to admit he was impressed.

He didn't like these specific words that were slurring from the other's mouth. He could barely make out what the squirrel monkey was mumbling out in his sleep, but he could tell that it wasn't pleasant. He was shivering and he had a slightly harder time determining if it was from the chill in the air or the nightmare.

He disliked watching his friends suffer in any form of the word, and decided to do the proactive thing and wake him up. He whispered into the other's ear and gently shook the sleeping form.

"Bento..."

No response, yet. Thankfully, the king is known for his persistence. He shook Bento a bit more roughly and spoke just loud enough to be heard but not enough to wake the others who would not be happy at their slumber being disturbed.

"Bento. Hey, wake up I need your assistance."

He knew the squirrel monkey wouldn't kick up as much of a fuss if he was asking for help. It didn't matter how idiotic or easy the task was, Bento would happily help out. The lump of black fur stirred before twisting around the ginger tail in acknowledgment of the request. The words slurred together, but he could understand the Brazilian just fine.

"What do you need?"

"I want to look at some fireflies and I can't go alone."

'You're the Monkey King you'll be fine."

"Galina said we have to stay in pairs and I'm not waking Macaque to ask for his help. That leaves you, are you going to come to help me find the fireflies or what?"

Bento grumbled and made his displeasure at being woken up known but still got up to direct the Monkey King to the nearest open area for the best viewing of the glowing insects. He felt the need to groom the fur that stood in all directions but felt that the activity could wait until they were out of earshot and they could talk while he fixed the spiky fluff that covered his companion.

They came across the clearing after a good half hour of walking. If Bento wasn't awake by now then the river nearby would do the trick; thankfully it seems that he wouldn't need to push him into the water.

"Here's the clearing, I don't see any fireflies so I can't help you out."

"That's fine, would you mind staying here with me?"

"I guess, you did drag me out here and I'm awake now... Any particular reason you wanted to see fireflies now of all times?"

The ginger furred macaque just shrugged and sat with his tail curling around a space next to him, as an invitation to join the king. Bento accepted the invitation and curled his own tail around the Monkey King. The king in question decided he might as well be honest with the other traveler about the reason he dragged him out this distance.

"You looked distressed in your sleep, I wanted to ask you about it in private while we still had enough time to get a good night's rest."

"Oh..."

Bento's eyes drifted from the sky to look at the macaque, the bags under his eyes betraying his state of unrest. He sighed before leaning on his chosen companion, slightly curling in on himself. Wukong gently rubbed circles into his back.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"As long as you don't mind me being vague about the details."

"I don't mind at all."

"To be brief, I dreamed that I was back in a bad place and the friends I had there were trapped again but everyone I became friends with recently was trapped as well and I guess it just upset me."

Wukong hummed in response and allowed the other to continue without interruption. He slowed his circles and led his hand to the shoulder to give it a small squeeze.

"If I'm being honest, the thing that upset me the most was the fact that you were in a similar situation as I would have been if I had stayed. It honestly broke me. I don't want that to happen because I don't know if you'd be in any actual danger, your invulnerability seems to be selective at best."

"If it helps you sleep better, I would never let you or anyone else here gets put in harm's way... well, maybe Macaque wouldn't mind if I took my time helping him out."

That got a small chuckle out of the primate, who also offered a small smile before it fell back to the way it was before. Wukong brought his sleepless friend closer and pulled him into a strong yet loose hug. The action was reciprocated with a sadder version of enthusiasm as he was nearly thrown off balance by the force behind it. He started rubbing circles again when he felt the tell-tale signs of sobbing barely heard above the sounds of the night.

"Let it out, I'm not going to judge you for crying."

The fireflies were originally just an excuse, but they were very beautiful just blinking in and out of existence in the clearing. He was told that while sleep may have to cut into the daylight hours, Bento would get enough rest to make up for the missed hours no matter what. Wukong found the answer acceptable and allowed the silence to continue while the fireflies continued their display. It was only broken with a content hum of a strange tune that Wukong didn't recognize.

"If I may ask, what is that tune you're humming?"

"What? Oh! That's Nana neném, it's a lullaby. One of my old friends from the bad place would sing to the younger ones and it kind of just stuck with me."

"A lullaby? That's sweet. So when the little ones wouldn't go to sleep your friend would sing to them so they would stop fussing?"

"Pretty much. How about you, anything from your younger years that stayed with you? Maybe something an older friend or parent did for you that stuck around after all this time?"

Wukong pondered for a second, deciding to keep his honest answer instead of the one that wouldn't depress most beings.

"I didn't have parents per se, I came into existence fully grown out of a rock after all. I guess I heard a few songs that I would sometimes sing to my monkeys back on Flower Fruit. Uh, there is... Jasmine Flower, Little Star, and I picked up the Journey to the West song a few years ago."

"Journey to the West? Egotistical much?"

"What can I say? I'm amazing."

Bento laughed at his unintentional humor, which caused him to laugh as well. The pair finally caught their breath and their eyes met, brown eyes staring into gold and red. He wanted to kiss the other so badly.

They apparently were taken back to the camp sometime in the night while they were asleep. Judging from how grumpy the second pair of monkeys were, he would have to guess Momo and Macaque were the ones who went out to find them. He made sure to try and find some mangoes when he went out with Kaede to find breakfast for the pair.