13. I Like You Too (2/2)
other.
"what is wrong?" rain asked as the smaller chimp pulled away from him.
"mother and father told me what happened to both you and milo, i was so worried," cinder signed quickly with a relieved smile while rain merely solemnly returned the expression.
"i'm quite alright," rain reassured his younger sister.
"well... it is nice to see you are safe and back home," cinder spoke quietly. hearing a small cough up above them both she and rain turned their attention towards whomever it was and noticed that their father was perched up on a platform. turning her attention back to rain she gave the older bonobo one more hug. "i am going to go visit milo. you two stay safe you hear?" cinder gestured before taking her leave.
rain smiled down at his young sister as she turned away and rushed off towards the healing hut. turning around, rain watched as the older chimpanzee jumped off of the platform and landed with a soft thud onto the wooden floorboards that made up their home.
"how are you doing today?" rocket asked the younger ape as he approached.
"i am. fine... father," rain answered slowly.
"that. is good. to hear," rocket replied and simply stared into the the younger ape's gray eyes. taking in a deep
eath, rocket rubbed the back of his neck as the both of them awkwardly stood there within the middle of their home. exhaling out his
eath, rocket lowered his eyes to the floorboards and decided that now may be better than later. "rain?" rocket spoke up to the young bonobo whom turned his attention back towards him. "there is... there is something i need to show you," rocket said quietly.
...
"drink lots of water okay?" ellie said softly to milo who nodded his head at her causing her to chuckle a bit. "make sure he drinks alright?" ellie turned to blue-eyes whom nodded once at her.
"i will," blue-eyes responded to the woman who took her leave.
just as ellie made it out of the doorway she had bumped into a smaller chimpanzee who had a light ashy fur to her. "hello cinder," ellie greeted.
"good morning ellie, you going to stay with us again?" cinder signed hopefully.
"for a little bit yes but today i will be going to the dam, but i promise i will be back later alright," the woman responded as she knelt down and gave the young chimpanzee a hug.
"i will see you later then," cinder piped up happily as she watched the human woman exit the hut. quickly she approached the room where ellie had just emerged from and saw that both blue-eyes and milo were in there. stopping by the doorway she watched as the two
others signed and spoke with each other before the elder of the two took notice of her. with a couple of waves, blue-eyes beckoned her inside and she quickly entered.
"good morning cinder," blue-eyes greeted the younger chimp.
"good morning blue-eyes," cinder returned the greeting before she slowly turned her attention to the other chimp who was sitting next to the older ape. "morning milo..." cinder said softly in a relieved quiet voice.
"hey..." milo responded just as slowly.
blue-eyes let his gaze dart between the two young chimps and stood up slowly, facing his little
other. "i'm going to go clear my head, i will check up on you later okay?" blue-eyes signed. before his little
other could respond he was already halfway across the room, "take care of him for me," blue-eyes signed to the young female as he passed her and then exited the room.
the two younger chimps eyed the entrance way as the folds came back down and closed the outside world to them. turning back around slowly, cinder met up with milo's gaze and she slowly walked up to the male. "are you?" cinder asked hesitantly, reaching out and touching milo by the arm.
"i am fine," milo reassured her with a smile before he was pulled into a strong hug.
"that is good to hear," cinder whispered as she held onto the other chimp dearly while the other slowly wrapped his arms around her.
...
once outside, blue-eyes stretched his limbs and squinted at the sun that was rising ever so steady up into the sky. looking around he noticed that the humans were already gone and that most of the apes had either venture back to the meadows or were prepping themselves for another hunt. deciding that he needed some fresh air, blue-eyes made his way on over towards the gates. once outside among the forest, blue-eyes approached his favorite tree and rested upon one of its
anches that was low to the ground. letting out a relieved sigh, he set his eyes upon the horizon and watched as the white clouds surrounded the mountains.
just as he was getting settled into his spot, blue-eyes perked up when he heard a faint sound, one that is familiar and yet different at the same time. curious he left his perch and followed that hymn like noise, wondering where it was coming from and who or what was making it. making his way through the path within the trees blue-eyes soon came upon a familiar quiet creek. whatever was making that noise was close and he was determined to find out what was making it. reaching out for a
anch, blue-eyes swung himself across a few of the trees and suddenly stopped when he found the source. down below him sat a lone figure, an ape with fur as white as the clouds, singing softly to herself as she bathed within the placid creek. shocking to say the least, blue-eyes was quite surprised to see an ape that was capable of utilizing her vocals to produce such a melodic hymn just like the humans. lost in the trance, blue-eyes miscalculated the
anch in front of him and when he grabbed onto it, it
oke under his weight and he was sent plummeting downwards, towards the waters.
as xuě was casually bathing herself in the rather lukewarm water she did not expect a sudden loud splash in front of her, causing her to let out a yelp and rushing off towards the bank of the creek for safety. however upon turning around, she was quite surprised to see a familiar looking chimpanzee
eaking the water's surface all the while coughing and sputtering. "blue-eyes?" xuě questioned in a astonished voice.
"i'm sorry, did not... did not mean to..." blue-eyes apologized quickly while trying to explain himself.
"are you hurt?" xuě asked quickly as she entered back into the water and approached the bigger male. after checking the blue eyed chimp over, she deemed him not injured. slowly the two walked back to the bank of the creek and both of them sat down upon the rocks. the both of them glanced at each other before they both looked in separate direction, feeling a bit embarrass in the moment. "blue-eyes... what were you doing up there, in the trees?" xuě questioned as she wrapped her arms around herself.
blue-eyes merely glanced down to the side embarrassingly at the question and rubbed the back of his neck. "i... i heard singing. when i followed it, i did not expect to see that it was you," he answered. "what are you doing out here anyways?" blue-eyes asked as he turned to the white chimpanzee.
xuě faced the male and frowned up at him, "i was bathing, as you can see. my fur is dirty," she answered. "what about you, why are you out here all alone," she shot back.
at that blue-eyes did not have an answer to and slowly the turned away from xuě's glare. "i was clearing my mind..." he spoke up quietly and the two of them just sat there, in silence.
"are you okay? you are not hurt badly are you?" xuě asked after a while.
"i am fine..." blue-eyes responded, turning to look at xuě, "i'm sorry i scared you, i did not meant to," he apologized.
"it is okay, i was just surprised... that is all," xuě explained with a small smile causing the other ape to glance away from her. she couldn't help but smile at the other ape's strange behavior of her.
"you... you have a beautiful voice. i've never heard an ape sing before," blue-eyes said quietly noticing the white chimp shyly smile up at him.
"thank you, i learned from the humans who took care of me," xuě said softly. she then looked the male chimp up and down before she timidly reached out and took a hold of blue-eyes' arm. the male looked back at her but she simply stood up, pulling him along with her. xuě then led the both of them back into the lukewarm creek and sat themselves down by the shallow end.
"what are you doing?" blue-eyes asked the female.
"you are dirty, so i am going to have to clean you," she said softly with a hint of laughter behind her voice.
"had not had time to clean myself," blue-eyes responded with a grumble as he sat there, causing xuě to give off a merry chuckle in response.
"i did not see you yesterday," xuě spoke up quietly as she groomed blue-eyes, feeling his muscles tensing up every time she touched him. noticing this, xuě placed her palm into the middle of the male's back which seemed to have calmed him down.
"i was... away. had to do something else," blue-eyes answered as he closed his eyes, relaxing under xuě's ministrations. "are you doing fine by the way? are the other apes treating you all right?" blue-eyes asked.
"yes the apes that live here are treating my apes and i fairly. we have learned so much new things while here and we have also taught the apes here of other things as well," xuě responded. "your home is wonderful," she finished just as blue-eyes turned around to face her. he then reached out and pulled a few leaves from her fur letting his sky colored eyes fall onto her own forest green ones.
"this is your home now too," blue-eyes said softly, "and i am glad that you are happy here."
xuě let out a small gasp when the older ape told her those words. the way blue-eyes had said it was sincere and she couldn't help but feel safe under the bigger chimp's stare. "thank you," she whispered back to which blue-eyes merely smiled warmly in return.
"xuě?" blue-eyes spoke up suddenly.
"yes?" xuě answered as she looked up at him.
"i know we just met but... whenever i am around you, you make me feel calm and... and i think you look beautiful with your green eyes and white fur and you can even sing," blue-eyes signed quickly, feeling really strange telling the smaller female all of this. "i... i think i-" blue-eyes started but stopped when xuě placed a finger onto his lips.
xuě looked deeply into blue-eyes' sky colored hues before she reached up and placed her hands around the older chimp's head. slowly, xuě then
ought both of their foreheads together and closed her eyes when they made contact. "i think i like you too," she whispered, feeling blue-eyes reach up and cupping her head into his hands.
unbeknownst to the two however there were three other apes who giggled among themselves as they watched.
"i told you she's fallen for him," upepo whispered while nzuri gave off a heavenly sigh.
"shh, let's go," daisy said quietly and turned the other two around so that they could leave the couple alone.