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Firstly, thank you to my friend Destiny for this:
Beetle gulped, pulling back again as he turned to watch Kubo lay on the ground. Monkey looked too, relieved to see him still asleep. She turned back to Beetle, eyebrows furrowed somewhere between anger and confusion. She drew her lip up to flash her fang, stalking closer towards Beetle so they didn't have to raise their voices. She opened her mouth to growl at him, but Beetle beat her to it, turning back to her with eyes wide with concern. It was then that beetle mumbled four words that took Monkey by surprise: "Do I have eyelids?". They then made passionate love and made monkey-beetle babies. The end
Truly beautiful. On with the story:
"I know you said not to worry about it, but..." Monkey turned toward Beetle's hulking form, watching as he poked a stick into the fizzling fire. His lower arm held the stick, while he held his upper arms against his chest in an oddly self-conscious manner. He paused before continuing, glancing from her to the fire again with pale eyes. "Your injury." He reminded finally. Monkey only blinked, hovering a hand over the stinging claw marks in her side. In all reality, she was much too curious and confused to retort. Since meeting him, Beetle had been comical and lighthearted during their journey so far, and yet now he sounded almost serious. She wondered why. "What about it?" Beetle shrugged, moving a hand to rub against the top of his helmet nervously. A muscle memory he must have picked up before he was cursed, it looked like he was trying to smooth back his hair. The samurai gave Monkey a lopsided grin, eyes nervous still. "Kubo is asleep so you can... Show if it hurts. Or tell me about it, let me help at least. We still have a long way to go and it probably won't be easy with an injury like that." He explained, twiddling the thumbs of his smaller arms. Monkey rolled her eyes, letting out a rough sigh. "Beetle, I told you it doesn't matter." "Yes it does!" Monkey blinked in surprise, turning to see Beetle's sudden and intensely concerned stare. She didn't like how this felt strangely... Familiar... Beetle gulped, pulling back again as he turned to watch Kubo shift on the ground. Monkey looked too, relieved to see him still asleep. She turned back to Beetle, eyebrows furrowed somewhere between anger and confusion. She drew her lip up to flash her fangs, stalking closer towards Beetle so they didn't have to raise their voices. She opened her mouth to growl at him, but Beetle beat her to it, turning back to her with eyes wide with concern. Monkey was taken back just long enough that he could speak first. "It does matter Monkey... You matter." Monkey's throat closed suddenly, not allowing her the luxury of speech. She only stared at Beetle in awe and confusion. The beetle samurai quickly motioned towards Kubo's sleeping form. "You're his mother... He needs you. He wants you around as long as you can be, even if he doesn't know that you're..." Beetle trailed off finally, letting out a soft sigh. "I know, I get it, I'm just some guy who skittered into this journey, into this apparent family but..." He swallowed and shook his head before looking into Monkey's eyes again. "It's been so long since I was around someone... At least I think so, but not having memories tends to... Apparently, make it easier to care about people. And I do, I care about you. And I care about Kubo." He sent Kubo a soft gaze, twitching his mouth up into a small smile. "And I just... It's more than the fact that he's Hanzo's son now, now I just want him to be happy. And I want you to be happy. And it just makes sense that the two of you be happy together. Clearly you love him so much, and he loves you. Of course he does, who wouldn't?" He let out a soft chuckle, rubbing his arm. "The point is, that your health does matter, and I just... I want to help. You rubbed that stuff on my wings back on the beach, and I don't have any of that, and I don't really know what to do with an injury like yours." He began to ramble, eyes peering into the lingering embers of the fire. The more he spoke, the tighter he folded his body in on itself. "I-I, it's not- it's not bleeding but it looks like it really hurts and..." Beetle finally drew to a silent stare, eyebrows creased in defeat. He really was mindless, wasn't he? He can't even do anything to help her... "There is one way you can help me." Beetle looked up in surprise, seeing Monkey sitting and --SMILING- at him! He couldn't help the enthusiasm in his voice, each set of arms bouncing in excitement. "How?" She motioned to the floor with her paw. "Lay down." Beetle drew still suddenly, brows furrowing at her words. Then he slowly eased himself onto the floor, resting on his side to face Monkey. She rolled her eyes at his behavior. "Don't worry, I don't bite." Then she smiled at him, flashing all of her fangs. She laughed lightly after seeing the fear flash in his eyes and laid down on her side, facing Beetle. "Talk to me... Kubo always talked to me before I went to sleep every night." Beetle blinked at her in shock, then looked away in surprisingly deep thought. He looked so conflicted, but finally looked back at her, an odd sense of helplessness in his pale orbs. "I... I don't know what to talk about." Monkey chuckled softly and adjusted herself carefully, cushioning her head with her paw. She winced softly, adjusting again so she didn't lean against her injury. Beetle's eyes widened in concern, one of his lower arms reaching out halfway towards Monkey, before he quickly pulled it back against his body. Monkey waved off his concern. "I used to be a Goddess, Beetle. I've dealt with worse." She reassured, eyes kind and soft. "Tell me anything you can remember..." Beetle froze for a moment, eyes going distant in an almost desperate search for a memory. Finally he seemed to have locked onto something, eyes coming back into focus to look down at Monkey. He seemed almost... Surprised as he spoke. "I... I think I remember one of my first moments in... In this body." Monkey blinked up at him in surprise, looking at him with open eyes as opposed to her constant look of judgment. Beetle would have taken a moment to appreciate it if he wasn't trying so desperately to hold onto this one single moment in his mind. He just needed it long enough to recall it audibly. Then he'd have a living memory in Monkey. The samurai tapped his knuckles against his forehead, biting his lip and creasing his brow in desperation. His lower hands balled into fists and bounced softly. "I... I wasn't... I was somewhere... There was, snow there but I knew I wasn't supposed to be there... I felt.. there was... Fear. I was scared and I had a bunch or weapons with me in a large backpack, I... I felt like I had to... Escape." Beetle finally muttered, squeezing his eyes tight in an almost wince, his fingers scraped against his helmet. Monkey watched on in muted awe, eyes wide and curious to hear more. Or maybe she was enraptured by the familiarity of this moment, except now she was in Kubo's place. And Beetle was in hers. "I... Found this.. statue head and, and in it's eye was a... A tunnel. I escaped down there and then it was all just...." Beetle winced suddenly, grinding his palms against his helmet. He slowly blinked his eyes open again and looked to Monkey quietly. He didn't say anything for a while, before his eyes fell to the ground in disappointment. "It... It's gone... Sorry, I can't recall what I was--." Beetle clenched his teeth to quiet himself again, feeling like a disappointment. He froze when he felt Monkey's paw against his cheek. Monkey eyes held a deep sadness, though she only smiled at her companion, thumb brushing against his cheek lightly. "It's okay... I used to lose my memories like that too, but I always had Kubo to remind me. You recalled when you found your home in the statue where we found you." Beetle's eyes widened slightly, eyebrows quirking up in interest when he mumbled quickly. "I found you actually." Monkey scoffed, suddenly humored by his weirdness. She patted his cheek lightly and pulled her hand away, raising an eyebrow at the cursed man. "Regardless of who found who, you remembered it. It looked difficult but it was more than I ever could." Beetle smiled hesitantly, eyes shifting away. "I feel like... Memories in this form are easier to grasp. Memories from before are more chaotic and... Difficult, they're.. they don't make sense and they always leave me with these lingering emotions that I can't understand..." Beetle huffed out of his nose, meeting Monkey's eyes again. He shrugged and cracked a smirk. "But at this point I've accepted it. I probably won't ever know who I was and that's... That's just fine." He pauses, smile faltering. "But sometimes... I still feel like I'm missing something. Or at least, I did. Before I joined you and Kubo." Monkey could only look on in surprise as Beetle laughed again, tipping his head to the side. "Guess I just needed a journey to go on." Monkey opened her mouth to reply when her ear twitched, catching the sound of Kubo sighing softly in his sleep. Right. A journey. They needed to sleep. "I think we should rest now. So we can keep up with Kubo." She left out mention of her remaining sister. For once in a long time, she felt oddly safe and comfortable. She didn't want to disturb their peace with talk of her homicidal family. Instead she just turned over so she could sleep and not chance laying on her injury. She closed her heavy eyelids. "Can I... Can I put my arms around you...?" Monkey's eyes shot back open and she flipped back over to stare at Beetle in confusion, fur bristling in defense. She relaxed again almost immediately after seeing Beetle's concerned and oddly innocent expression. It was an odd sight compared to all of his smug looks. "Excuse me?" Beetle backpedaled immediately, sitting up quickly and shaking all four of his hands towards Monkey, repeating a quiet mantra of, " No, no, no, no, no!" He insisted, clasping each set of hands together, embarrassed. "I-I mean because it's cold and that way I can hold my arms over your cuts and and protect you..." He muttered nervously, eyes locked on the ground. "I didn't mean it in any weird way, I just... It's cold... It's cold..." He mumbled finally, raising his main hands up to hide his flushed face. "Aaaannd you have fur. I'm stupid I'm sorry, I'm, the curse, I didn't even think, please ignore me." Beetle laid back down on his opposite side, facing away from Monkey this time. He curled up against himself and closed his eyes tight. Monkey just looked down at him silently and a recalled their conversation this night. 'It's been so long since I was around someone...' She could recall the mournful, lonely look in his eyes when he spoke that sentence. She blinked slowly. "Yes." Beetle remained silent for a moment before hesitantly sitting up and turning to look at Monkey in confusion. "Wh... What?" "You can put your arms around me. I can't imagine going all that time without interaction with another person." Monkey explained softly, turning her gaze from Beetle to watch Kubo lovingly. Beetle chuckled. "To be fair I don't remember much of it." He tried to joke, but Monkey only turned to him with a sadness in her eyes. "But you still felt it." Beetle's smile fell away and he broke eye contact first. "So, yes. You can put your arms around me." And then, with an air of finality, Monkey laid back down to sleep. Beetle shuffled behind her, feeling almost jittery at her compliance. He never imagined, she, Monkey, a Moon Goddess!! Would agree to such a thing. And yet she did, and he could feel his heart swell beneath his carapace as he gently laid behind her and carefully wrapped his two left arms around her, each keeping a careful distance from her injury. Beetle could feel something in his chest tighten and pull. One tear slid from his eye, just to be wiped away quickly. She was so warm and he could feel her breathing, feel her heart beating, he could feel her living. He scooted only a tiny bit closer, a small neediness in his own chest spurring him on. He could fall asleep like this easily. In fact... Beetle gently closed his eyes, arms wrapped tenderly around the object of his protection. Monkey lay awake only a while longer, until her own tears came to an end. Something about this all felt so familiar and warm and welcome, something she hadn't felt in a decade at least, and she didn't want to let it go. But sleep took her quickly, finding her laying comfortable in the arms of a cursed beetle samurai. Paper Hanzo looked on across his sleeping companions. None of them were to know that by this time tomorrow, three out of the four would be dead.