Except When It Is
#2 of It's A Date! And a Date, and a Date...
The door opened, Otto looking down at the team unexpectedly, "Oh, hey guys. What are you doing here?" He happily asked.
Chiro was right behind him, slightly more perplexed than Otto. "Are you guys ok?
"Chiro!" Powered by anger, Mandarin emerged from the bottom of the pile and furiously pointed to everyone, ending at the nonplussed Otto. "Explain to them that you are not just giving me false hope! ...I mean, that we are dating!"
"...what?" Chiro's look of confusion matched that of someone who had just found something unidentifiable in a refrigerator, not sure whether what they had just encountered was benign or not.
"What?!" Otto's question was less confused, and more akin to finding out that one's favorite show had been cancelled. He immediately began to sulk, "Aw, man, there goes my plan."
"Kid! Hey, sorry about this." Sprx tried to regain his dignity by standing up and looking nonchalant as he leaned against Mandarin. "Just explain to these guys that you and me have been going out, and I'll make sure they scram, okay? Don't worry, I'll smooth everything over." Mandarin, whose eyes had been glowing brighter and brighter as Sprx spoke, took one deliberate step to the side to cause Sprx to lose his support and flail wildly before falling to the ground.
Chiro continued to be confused, but slowly began to realize what was occurring, although still not sure if it was real or in fact a dream he was having, "Wait, what?!"
Gibson shook his head in disapproval at Sprx, smirking as he fell to the ground in a less than elegant pile, "I apologize for the confusion Chiro, but it seems some debate has arisen about the status of our relationship. If you would be so kind as to 'clear the air', so to speak, and tell them that ours is the real relationship, I would greatly appreciate it."
Sprx attempted to get up, only for Apollo to step over him and stand on his helmet to get at eye level with Chiro. "Chiro? I need you to think back. Remember all those times when you and I hung out? All the hugging and cuddling? Yeah, I need you to tell these guys that it all happened, and then we can put this behind us. Sorry they're being jerks about it."
"We are not being jerks!" Mandarin snapped, his voice getting higher with anxiety. Chiro looked more baffled than he had expected, and he was not immediately proclaiming Mandarin to be his one and only, which was worrying.
Antauri sighed, the poor boy was obviously not used to this type of attention, and the team's behavior wasn't exactly helping any matters, "I do apologize Chiro, I suppose I should have tried to prevent them from coming here, this is obviously very stressful for you; not that I do not understand, mind you. But, as Gibson said, if you could just clarify your relationship with me, I will be able to handle matters from there."
Chiro looked just about ready to flee, "I... I don't know what any of you are talking about! The only person I've ever dated was Jinmay, and we broke up months ago! Are you all confusing me for someone?!" He really had no idea what else to say to all this insanity.
By this point, Sprx had freed himself from underneath Apollo, and had been in the process of starting to fuss at the yellow monkey when Chiro's outburst interrupted him. "...What? Kid, settle down. You must be confused. You and me have been together for about a month now. Remember?" He smiled encouragingly at him. "When you told me that you liked me?"
The others clearly wanted to escalate this argument, but none of them wanted to upset Chiro any further, so they were stuck in a limbo between trying to coax him to agree with them and reassure him that there was nothing to fear.
"Yes, as a friend! You thought I meant...!" Chiro trailed off as all the pieces seemed to slide into place. Looking back, he supposed it was kind of obvious, but it's amazing what the human brain is capable of ignoring. "Oh Shuggazoom, I-I thought you guys were just being friendly, honest!"
Silence followed that statement as the monkey team tried to come to terms with this new information. They glanced at one another uncertainly, not certain how to process it. Just friendly?
"...What." Mandarin's tone was flat with disbelief. "Do you seriously think that I would have trusted any of them the way I trusted you?" He jerked his thumb behind him at the rest of the team with contempt. "No! That was not... I was not being friendly!" He stomped his foot, aware that he was being absurd, but trying to focus on anything but the hurt he was feeling.
Antauri was able to hid his disappointment the best, and turned his attention to Mandarin, trying to contain the situation. "Mandarin, please calm down, we... all appeared to have made a large assumption that was untrue. But that does not mean Chiro dislikes you." He tried his best to comfort his teammate, but the orange monkey was having none of it.
Meanwhile, Otto looked at the others, mildly amused, but also worried about Chiro, "Wait, so you guys all already thought you were dating Chiro? Wow, good thing I didn't get a chance to actually ask him; that could have been really bad, huh?"
There was a brief pause and a very telling silence before all of the monkeys began speaking at once. "So, Chiro how about you and me go-" "Chiro! I know this great seafood place-" "Chiro would you please accompany me t-" Mandarin firmly pushed Antauri aside and approached Chiro with confidence.
"Chiro... I have made my feelings on this matter clear." He paused, taking a breath before speaking again, clearly distraught. "But it seems you were not prepared for this. So we will give you space to think on things." Mandarin firmly grabbed hold of Otto and dragged him out of the room, and began to push the protesting other monkeys away from their leader's room.
Chiro stood there in silence for a few moments, before closing his door, and silently making his way over to his bed. He sat down on his sheets, laid down and proceeded to scream into his pillow, it absorbing all the stress he was feeling.
Gibson was the first to disentangle himself from the group, managing to jab Sprx in the head with his elbow as he did so. "Alright Mandarin, that's enough, there's no need to keep pushing, I think we all got the idea!" He huffed as he brushed himself off.
Mandarin give him a petulant shove for that, but he didn't put much effort into it. Instead he folded his arms and stormed away, standing apart from the rest of the group and glaring at the wall, his tail lashing wildly behind him.
Otto smiled sadly at Mandarin, not wanting to incur his wrath, but also wanting to give him some comfort. "Uh... I'm sure Chiro will think really carefully about this. And uh..." He didn't know what else to say, even an optimist like himself saw this only ending badly. Either Chiro chose one of them and they all loathed that monkey, or he chose none of them and they all ended up miserable.
Sprx and Apollo stood closer to one another than the others, looking uncomfortable. There had always been some playful flirting in their relationship, but now they were both competing for the same guy, which left them unsure how to react. Anger? Resentment? Competitiveness? But both of them cared too much about Chiro to reduce him to some kind of prize to be fought over, so now they just fidgeted and tried to think of some way to break the tension in the room.
Antauri decided to clear the air first, "I do believe it would be best if we all decided to spend some time apart, try and... figure ourselves out." He frowned as he glanced back towards Chiro's door, realizing that left as he was, Chiro might not say anything about this, and try and sweep it under the rug. Such a situation was far from ideal, "I suggest we leave Chiro a note, asking him to please come to the common room at... 8 sounds good? And for him to make his choice there. That will give him... and all of us, the rest of the day to think about this." He turned to Mandarin, "And before you say anything, Mandarin, no I will not go alone, you can accompany me when I slip the note under his door."
"And...!" Sprx spoke up, glancing at the others. "We all agree to respect his decision, no matter what. Getting jealous and making problems would hurt Chiro the most, and none of us wants that." Apollo was surprised at this, but smiled and nodded in agreement. Sometimes Sprx reminded him why he was attracted to him in the first place. Among other reasons...
Mandarin scowled at this, but nodded as well. "It is only fair." He glared at Antauri, but there was no venom in it this time. "Let us write the note, cradle-robber."
Antauri smirked, "Coming from the monkey who is three years older." Regardless, he nodded and turned to the rest of the team, "But very well, we will see you in the evening team."
As the two walked off, Gibson sighed, "So..." He smiled in spite of himself, "we are all kind of idiots, aren't we?" He looked over to the green monkey, "So, what was your plan, anyway Otto?"
He shrugged thinking it was obvious, "Well, I was gonna tell him that I really liked him and all that. Nothing special, ask him out too I guess." He quickly waved his hands in front of him, "Although I didn't know any of you guys felt the same way, honest!"
Gibson blinked a few times, before sighing, "What does it say about all of us, that you were the only one here who actually thought to do that?"