"Donghae... it's either me, or the monkey that goes."

 

Sunny had known from the sheer silence that eminated from Donghae what his answer would be and the cute rather persuasive pout that lined her lips was one that soon recided to the back of her usually lovely personality to something much more stubborn. "I won't ask you again Oppaaa.."

 

Nothing. Silence.

 

"Aigoo  Lee donghae!" She whined desperately her voice hitching slightly in hopes of getting a response out of him. Donghae's blank mask hadn't reacted and he still wondered if he had been heartless. Sunny was a sweet girl but honestly after a while he found the aegyo wore of and started to grate on his nerves. 

 

He couldn't even bring himself to look at the bandage covering her hand and the cotton wool bud sticking to the inside of her elbow, having to have various shots against whatever diseases the little monkey might have had.

 

In the end his house had ended up empty with nothing more than him and a rather smug looking monkey.

 

---

 

 

Said monkey was currently watching him expectantly and donghae groaned. He worked from home... for now the only job that he could get and he couldn't help the sinking feeling that maybe his life was revolving a little too much around his childhood. Hyukjae was going through a bad stage of adolesance and currently his destructive side had him glad that he had hardly any belongings left. Dragging himself out of bed souly to save himself from the devious look in the chocolate pits of the little monkeys eyes.

 

With a dash of brown beating him to it he frowned, rubbing th sleep out of his eyes whilst slumping down the stairs on his way to the kitchen. With a loud thump he couldn't even be bothered to predict what the little bundle of 'joy' was up to.

 

Leaning against the doorframe, unable to help the smirk spreading across his lips he just shook his head. "Hyukkie your incorrigable." He scoffed, watching the monkey, still half swinging on the handle to the refrigerator, a carton of milk in his paw, tilting it up disappointedly at the white liquid pouring out onto the tiles.

 

He could almost read the cogs churning in the monkeys brain and the thoughts in his mind as his eyebrows scrunched up.

WHY IS THIS NOT STRAWBERRY MILK?!

 

Laughing... almost to himself he slid over and detached the monkey from everything, swinging him around to sit atop his shoulder. He needed to get the monkeys breakfast done enough so that he could try to get some work done. 

 

He was just settling down, fingers hovering over the keyboard indecisively when he felt something hard and wet hit the side of his face and for a moment he thought his first fears had become reality.

 

But no luckily the food that hit him in the side of his face had yet to be eaten and processed and he could breath a sigh of relief. "Hyukkie?" He questioned, peering around curiously hoping he wasn't chewing any wires or something absurd. 

 

Drawing his eyes back to his computer screen he smirked at the reflection of the little monkey perched above him on the back of his couch, catching Donghae's reflection watching him and he bared his teeth at him in a full on gummy smile a sign of positive interaction with higher members. Donghae's fingers stilled on the keyboard and he found himself unconciously grinning back at him.

 

Shutting the laptop down and ending their staring competition Donghae tilted his head back until the little monkey covered his eyes with his hands. "You want to go somewhere...?" He questioned, knowing he wouldn't get a response but if he didn't talk to himself, who would?

 

And thats how they ended up going to the park for the first time.

 

---

 

Hyukjae was almost uncontrollable, Donghae had found some kind of lead for him that he clipped on to the back of his little red jumper, and with no such objections other than when Hyukjae ran off to explore something and found that he was suddenly bouncing back, he was in his element. 

Bouncing off on all fours when he found something particularily interesting, chattering animatedly to himself before he came back, clambering up donghae and nuzzling against him excitedly. Donghae wondered why he never tried this in the first place. He supposed it was because he was so scared of loosing Hyukjae, and not only that but with Mokpo being so far away... in his heart it would be like letting go of his childhood. 

 

---

 

"Hyung..?" The word stopped his short and honestly it took him a moment to process how to respond to human words. His eyes lifted up, narrowing expectationally but when his eyes landed on nothing more than Cho ing Kyuhyun he couldn't help but laugh. A manic , rather supressed laughter at that, if he thought his own expression was weird then his childhood friends was even better.

 

"Really? You couldn't have just settled for having a dog." He scoffed and only then did Donghae realise quite what he was doing. Amongst the other parents in the park he had Hyukjae bundled happily into a swing, fingers wrapped around the front of the seat, swaying happily and grinning at the rest of the children staring wide eyed at the monkey sharing the swings with him.

Clearing his throat he brought the swing to a stop, the monkey blinking up at him expectantly before shooting daggers at Kyuhyun.

Strange how such a small creature (although undoubtably with a meaner set of teeth) could make a close to six foot guy back up a couple of steps.

Donghaes attention was drawn back to his pet and he sighed, crouching down and running his fingers through the crest of hair on the top of his head. "Shh.." He reasurred, scooping him up and smiling as the monkey looped his arms around his neck and buried his fingers in his hair murmuring to him quietly. 

Kyuhyun laughed, stepping over and plucking at the edge of the sweater that the monkey was wearing. "Donghae i see your not dealing too well with-"

Donghae's gaze grew but more hostile than the monkeys at that point, all but baring his teeth at his old friend. "I'm doing just fine." He snapped, unsure as to whether he was trying to persuade his old friend... or himself.

It had been tough at first but honestly Donghae was starting to accept that maybe a solitary life was the right thing for him.

"But you hate being alone." Kyuhyun reminded him, eyebrows raised to bring up memories of a persistant donghae begging a certain someone to come to the toilet with him on a regular basis just so that he wasn't on his own. Donghae's dark eyes locked on Kyuhyuns and he smiled. "But i'm not alone." He said as if it was obvious, hugging Hyuk to his chest and leaning his chin on top of his head, earning a soft chuntering noise from the little capuchin. 

Kyuhyun was now watching him skeptically, none too sure this was the sane Donghae he'd been friends with all those years ago. "Is it even legal to keep one of those things?" He questioned, gesturing vaguely towards the little primate who buried his face in Donghae's chest instead. He wasn't too happy with all the attention, whether it was directed towards him or his owner.

Donghae nodded, not only were Kyuhyun's eyes on him but now a lot of other mothers had ushered their children away from oggling the primate in his arms and not only did Donghae feel exposed after not having left the house for a long time but he wanted to take Hyukjae back and protect him... if someone took him away from him he knew what he would be left with, a big fat nothing.

Hyukjae wasn't a dangerous animal... he was affectionate, and funny, and smart.

He only wished he hadn't been so wrong about that...

----

He didn't know why he invited his old time friend back to his house. It was untidy and he totally didn't feel like he was ready for company but he sensed it was a bad idea the minute the younger stepped over the thresh hold. "Hyung your house is huge, you really shouldn't live here all on your own."

Yeah... Donghae though, although the monkey currently wrapped around his calf was a small reminder that he would never truely be alone no matter how much of an expense and pain Hyukkie could be. 

 

The monkey seemed to have warmed up to his friend at least enough to stop fluffing up with agression every time he saw him. He even too the liability to detach himself from Donghae's leg and went scampering off, enough so that Kyuhyun felt it safe to turn his attention back to Hae.

 

Mulling over Donghae's future a rather one sided conversation that conluded with Kyu insisting that he would hook him up with someone and Donghae half agreeing although promising himself that he would keep his front door well and truely locked for the next couple of months just in case he wondered why he spent so much of his life trying to please others when realy he lacked to ever think of himself.

 

What did he want for himself?

 

The fact that he didn't know scared him, and although Kyuhyun was preoccupied with raising his eyebrows at the hyung that seemed to have switched off right before him he almost crapped his pants the moments something spring tackled his shoulder from behind,  a rather indignant squeak leaving his lips as he tried to brush the monkey off. 

 

Donghae snapped out of it when he witnessed Kyu flapping pitifully at the monkey hugging his neck in a death grip, smacking his lips in a way that was seemingly to reassure the human that he didn't purposely indend on strangling him to this extent and instead waved a piece of paper in front of his face, one appropriately scrawled with meaningless lines.

 

"He's very smart." Donghae pointed out, knowing if he placed a pen in his hand the monkey was actually capable of gripping it for a few seconds while he drew different shapes on the paper. 

 

"He did this?" Kyu asked skeptically tilting his head and coughing trying to make his escape while admiring the animals 'work of art'. Donghae really did have too much time on his hands... he realised considering he was treating a monkey like a child. A badly behaved one at that. 

 

"Yeah! I'll go get a pen and he can show you Kyu!" Donghae murmured, shuffling off into another room to get a pen. This was the one topic of conversation he was interested in and the only thing he had to take pride in was his pet that was in his opinion rather exraudinary. 

 

It was only until after he was rifling around in draws filled with rubbish that he realised his mistake. Things had gone deadly quiet and the slamming of the draw in his haste to get back to the kitchen... not wanting to leave a stranger alone in the hands of his rather over protective monkey, only triggered something that shook him to the core.

 

A rather unearthly agonising scream from the kitchen.

 

 

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Chapters will start to get more interesting with what i have planned.

After all Hae can't just have Hyuk biting people anymore :(

Here have a swinging Hyukkie ^-^