Work Text:
.01
“He’s lucky he’s got you,” Kate said.
Davis chuckled. “You kidding me? I’m the one who’s lucky.” There had been other animals in his life, and Davis knew there always would be, but George was George. “Don’t tell him I said that though.”
“Oh, it’s like that between you, is it?” Kate grinned.
“Well, you know how it is. Guy saves your life one time, and next thing you know, he thinks he’s the boss of you with opinions on what I eat, where I sleep, what time I get out of bed.” Davis shook his head.
Kate’s grin widened. “Sounds almost like you’re married.”
“Ha!” Davis said. “Now that you put it like that, I guess it is a bit like being married, huh? Hey, you want to see something cool? There’s a lake nearby and George loves to swim.”
.02
“Is that a … gorilla baby?” Russell asked, and the expression on his face was this perfect mix of fascination and amusement.
Neither emotion made sense, so Davis decided to ignore them. “Yes,” he said, swallowing the ‘obviously’ because Russell had shown up with a truck full of food and one good turn deserved a bit of patience.
“So … “ Russell let his voice trail off in a way that was probably supposed to be suggestive, except that Davis didn’t have a damn clue what Russell was suggesting.
“It’s not George’s,” was the reply he settled on, once it became clear Russell was going to be an asshole about this.
“I didn’t think it was,” Russell said. There was a brief pause before he added, “Uh, congratulations, I guess. As long as everyone’s happy.”
Davis considered pointing out the dad had gotten killed by poachers, so ‘happiness’ wasn’t the foremost emotion everyone was feeling, but it seemed a wasted effort so instead he just nodded and went to help George get the food truck unloaded.
.03
“George. Look, I know you like to make jokes - “ George guffawed. “- but now Paola is confused.” Davis repeated the sign. “Paola is very confused.”
George huffed. To be fair, Paola might very well be too traumatized and/or grateful to be under George’s protection (and Davis’s, it went without saying) to spend much time being confused, but Davis felt that it was vital to set boundaries. Clear communication was important.
There was a time and place for jokes and George’s unique sense of humor, and this wasn’t it.
George made the signs indicating that Davis was his mate again and guffawed.
“Not funny. Paola confused. Me sad when Paola is confused.”
George sniffed. Davis knew that once George came to view Paola as part of his troop, he would feel more protective of her, but right now, clearly George felt it was more important to make jokes at Davis’s expense than to make sure Paola got settled in properly.
It didn’t help, of course, that Davis was closer in size to Paola than he was to George. It made things … confusing for everyone.
“You have to be clear with Paola, all right? No more jokes.”
George sighed, but he bumped Davis’s fist when Davis held it out, so Davis figured they were cool and Paola was going to get un-confused real soon and everything was going to be just fine.
+ .01
And everything was fine, more or less, except that while George sort of had a troop again and George almost had a family, it wasn’t …
‘George lonely,’ George signed.
“Don’t be silly. You got all these people. They’re relying on you.” Davis hesitated, then signed, “I’m relying on you too.”
Family protected each other, but Davis knew as well as anyone that there was more to family than that. Being family wasn’t just about protecting each other. It was also about sharing things together – things like food and happiness and sure, the occasional joke.
‘George lonely,’ George repeated, except that this time the sign he used for ‘lonely’ was a little …
“Dude. Too much information.” If there had been any lady giant gorillas around, Davis would have moved heaven and earth to make it so that she and George could meet, see if they hit it off – but there weren’t. It was just George.
Davis had had a choice: 99% of the time, he’d chosen the company of his animals over hanging out with other humans, be they interested in conversation or company or (fine, he was going to come out and say it) sex.
George didn’t have that choice.
“Hey.” Davis reached out. To George, it probably felt like he was being touched by an ant or something – assuming he felt it at all.
George sighed.
“You said it, buddy. But you’ll always have me, all right?”
George put down his hand, and Davis figured that, well, why not? It felt odd to be standing on someone’s hand, like if he tripped, he’d be hurting George more than himself.
“We’re going to figure something out, okay? Trust me. I’m with you all the way.”
George signed with the hand that wasn’t holding Davis.
“Yes, fine. I’ll tell people that you’re my big, strong mate who’s going to beat them up if they scare me. There. You happy now?”