Work Text:
It was late at night, and Diddy had woken up to the sound of thunder.He had always gotten bad vibes whenever it rained...Though he was never certain why. He stayed hidden under the blanket while holding onto the fox plush his great-grandmother had given him a while ago.
The toddler screamed as the thunder roared even louder outside. Nope, he couldn't take this anymore. He climbed out of his tire and made his way over to DK's hammock.
"DK, wake up!" Diddy yelled. But to his horror, DK wasn't in his hammock...in fact, he didn't seem to be in the treehouse at all. Surely, he couldn't be out there in the rain...right?
...Still, if DK wasn't in the treehouse, then maybe he was in the cave underneath? Diddy had never actually attempted to climb down from his treehouse before, but from the looks of it, he didn't have a choice.
Diddy grabbed his fox plush and started making his way outside. He would toss his fox down each step while slowly making his way down, himself. Once he made it to ground-level, he looked at the area around him. Surely, DK was around here somewhere."
BANG!
The thunder startled the young monkey, he yelped as he ran inside the cave underneath his treehouse. But he stopped in his tracks as he saw the shadow of a monster sitting in front of a pile of bananas.
...Or at least he thought it was a monster. It reached out to Diddy and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck before he could escape.
"What's the matter, Little Buddy? Can't sleep?"
The monster turned on a nearby lantern, revealing himself to be DK. Diddy couldn't help but let out a sigh, "Is DK here fighting monsters again?"
DK chuckled. "Nah, I think you managed to scare 'em all away."
"I did?"
"Yeah, it turns out they're scared of foxes."
Diddy looked down at his fox plush as DK placed the younger monkey next to him. Had this fox really scare all the monsters? He wasn't even aware that it could do such a thing.
"So why is DK down here?"
"Because I've gotta watch over the hoard," DK said.
"Is it because monsters want our bananas?"
"Well...yeah," DK replied. "Anyone could come down here and grab all the bananas in here. In fact, we once had a former Kong take the entire Banana Hoard. Needless to say, we don't exactly hear much from him these days."
"But why can't Kong take the bananas?" Diddy asked. "Kongs love bananas, right?"
"Well, yeah...but he wanted the entire hoard for himself. Sometimes, you can't trust people to be good all the time, y'know? Besides, Cranky's kidnapped some lady back when he was my age."
"But why?"
"I dunno, something about revenge?" DK said while scratching the back of his head. He wasn't going to lie, though. He'd done the same thing when he came over to New Donk City not that long ago. The lady there didn't seem to hold any grudges, and her boyfriend was more than willing to forgive DK. But he didn't need to share any of this with Diddy...at least, not yet.
"So what are you gonna do?" DK asked. "Do you wanna stay down here and guard the hoard?"
Diddy replied with a nod. "OK."
The rain kept pouring, but it was beginning to lighten up. As the night went on, Diddy had finally fallen asleep next to DK. He was using his fox as a pillow.
As happy as the big ape was to have someone with him, he couldn't help but worry. He knew he wasn't going to be able to protect Diddy forever. In fact, he would have to be the one sitting here to protect the hoard one day.
...But if Diddy was going to be the one to rule the island one day, then DK will have to do as much as he can to prepare him for when the time comes.