Humanum Opus (The Simian Forest Saga: Vol. II)

V. Restless

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"Koba..."

What was that sound? Surely not his mother's voice. Mother could not speak. Koba had been wrapped in the suffocating satin that was his restless mind, sleep holding onto him with bony, unrelenting fingers. The sound of birds slowly filled his ears from where they had once felt as if they were filled with cotton. His eyes opened and he blinked several times, attempting to clear away the lazy film of sleep that still clung on from his impromptu rest. How long had he been asleep? When had he fell asleep? The metallic tang of blood registered upon his tongue. Right, his tussle with the human had led him to steel away to his own end of the platforms that surrounded the entrance of the village. He had not gone home for fear of running across another one of his kind. 

The voice spoke again. "Koba." A female.

His head turned, shifting slowly out of his curled position, having been nestled into a corner against two tree trunks in order to watch the night go by and the clearing below die down in activity. Familiar green eyes regarded him with both curiosity and concern. She hovered a few feet away as if he might jump out at her and bite her next. His brows lowered and he grunted, turning his face away from her. The last the pair of them had spoken, they had gotten into a frivolous argument and she had stormed away as usual. Women were hard for him to wrap his head around. Closer she came until she sat herself down an arms length from him.

'Are you alright?' she signed. 

'Yes,' he quickly responded... perhaps a bit too quick. Her insightful gaze pried further, wordlessly signaling that she didn't believe him. Not one bit. She shuffled a touch closer, fingers brushing his arm. Koba felt a twinge of something within his chest at the intimate gesture. He didn't wish for such tenderness and yet he knew he couldn't stop her from displaying such affection. Three weeks they had been courting one another— she made her intent with him well known, even despite her already being wedded off to another. He didn't care, and certainly didn't want to start.

The chimp rested her chin on his bicep. Her sweet scent filled his nose, easing his nerves a touch. At least someone was level-headed. 'You don't seem it,' she carefully prodded, shamrock eyes gleaming with a hint of mischief. 'What happened? I was not there.'

Koba took a moment to consider how he was going to explain the events around the fire that night. His eyes swept briefly down upon the card that sat tucked beneath his heel. It must have fallen out of his hand when he had dozed off. 'Human was telling lies. Even Rocket knew,' he explained, avoiding her gaze as he did. She was very close. She listened though, allowing him to speak. Her head rose from its perch, focusing in on her own hands as she began to carefully comb her fingertips through the dark hair upon his forearm. 'I know she looks harmless. Still dangerous.' 

'I heard you bit her,' she revealed.

'Human grabbed me. I taught her not to.'

Her brows pinched and for a moment she looked upon him with disapproval, and yet somehow, pity. Koba felt his guts turned and opened his mouth to defend himself, only for her to cut him off. "She... not hurt you, though?"

"Mist," he warned, causing her to huff. 'You don't know what humans are capable of. I do.'

'Saw humans, at zoo. Threw things sometimes,' Mist recalled pointedly. 'Humans can do bad just as apes can.' Disgruntled, he growled and moved to stand, but she gently tugged him back down with a few hoots of apology. He didn't want to sit around and be lectured by her if she was just going to spout the same crap that Maurice and Caesar did. This time she spoke. "I'm sorry.. I'm sorry, you're.. right. Humans did bad things. Still do." Their eyes met and she attempted to reach up and touch his face, which he was quick to brush away. "Please... stay."

Ire filled his belly, and yet he couldn't force himself to leave her. Not when she was looking at him with those large doe-eyes of hers. Koba wavered, humming and hawing. He wanted to return to his home and sleep some more, forget about this whole night... but Mist was warm and she smelled nice. It had been a while since he had had a woman, too. Sitting himself down finally, he felt her nestle back into him, stroking his forearm in a soothing, rhythmic pattern. Any other time he would have wrestled out of her grip and meandered away, but it wasn't yet daylight and nobody was around. These overt displays of affection would be allowed— for now.

'Don't get you like this often,' Mist remarked.

Still, despite how his instincts wanted him to drag her away somewhere private, he couldn't help but find her clinginess unappetizing. Women— they were such sentimental beings. Koba's irritation got the better of him. 'Is Button not talking to you again?' he asked, fighting a sneer.

Her grip tightened upon his wrist in warning. 'No,' she insisted. 'Just... missed you.'

No matter how many times he had seen Caesar and Cornelia getting cozy within one another's company, Koba was always reminded of how much he disliked physical contact. Still, he sat and watched the sky begin to bleed with light. His eyes briefly chanced a glance up toward the mountainside, in the direction of the human's hideaway. It would be so easy. He could get Grey and Stone to help him dispose of the body. It would be as simple as squishing a bug and moving along with his day. Caesar and the others would move on, even if it had been weeks that she had been amongst their kind.

Mist stirred, drawing his attention. 'Thinking?'

'A lot,' he summarized. Having had enough of her, he pulled his arm away and stood, earning a soft sound of protest from the female chimp.

Mist rose, plodding after him as he climbed down to the cold stone floor of the colony's home. 'Where are you going?'

Christ, she was needy. 'To bed.' He wandered out further into the clearing, then paused, looking back at the woman who watched him apprehensively. Koba's lips twitched up into a slight smirk. He always loved to strike just a bit of fear into the hearts of others, whether he was intimate with them or not. He was proud of himself. 'Are you coming?'

Her pretty face lit up with excitement, then she became bashful as if this were his first invitation to her. He extended a hand and she approached, slim fingers interlacing into his own upon closing the distance. The pair of them disappeared into the blue hours of the morning in order to abscond to the confines of his home. 

When she would awaken once more in the warm light of day, he would be gone.