Work Text:
They had been training for hours.
ManePear had woken him up at dawn, creeping with that unnatural stealth he possessed into the guest room Wemmbu was staying in. Despite its painfully creaky door that caused Wemmbu to wince every time it was opened, Mane had managed to sneak in undetected. He had pulled out a goat horn, and with a deep, silent breath, blown into it.
The goat horn blared in Wemmbu's ear, startling the purple demon awake. He shot up from his cozy bed like a reanimated corpse, looking around wildly before his gaze fell on ManePear. "Dude," he muttered groggily, sleepiness returning to him. "What was that for?"
Mane shrugged. "Dunno. Now get up bro, you're already late."
Wemmbu's droopy eyes widened in surprise, before he looked out his window and slumped back into bed. "Bro," he mumbled, his voice muffled by the pillow in his face. "It's the crack of dawn, bro."
"Exactly," Mane said matter-of-factly, as if that would make his logic make sense. "It's already dawn, bro. You were supposed to be up before sunrise."
Wemmbu said nothing, instead groaning in response.
Mane, however, was not going to take no as an answer, so he grabbed Wemmbu firmly by the forearm and quite literally dragged him out of bed and onto the floor. "Get up, bro. Training does- training doesn't wait for the tired."
Reluctantly, Wemmbu pushed himself off the floor, shooing Mane out of his room to get changed. About five minutes later, he joined Mane and Egg at the table. His two friends were wide awake, playing...hangman? He shook his head at the absurdity of the situation.
And that's how Wemmbu's morning had started. Woken up at the crack of dawn by a lion with a goat horn.
He'd woken up after a while, snapping to attention and finally fighting to ManePear's standards, but that had been seven hours ago.
They had been training for about ten hours at that point, and frankly Wemmbu wondered whether they'd stop training before his limbs fell off. He had just used most of the energy he had left on a clean hit on Mane, but that didn't change the fact that he was about five seconds from literally falling out of the sky. That was when Mane called out, "Yo! That's enough for today, bro."
Wemmbu sighed with relief, any longer and he thought his wings would've detached. He dove down to the floor, scattering dust as he flapped his gargantuan wings for a graceful descent.
"Yo, chill!" Egg coughed from a few metres away. "You're gonna get dust in my eye bro!"
Wemmbu laughed softly as Egg approached him. "You good bro?" he checked in with his friend. Wemmbu nodded softly. "Yeah, just...tired."
It was then when Mane interrupted their conversation. "C'mon, you chungies," he called to them. "It's gonna get dark soon, we can talk over dinner later."
Wemmbu rolled his eyes playfully. "You and your dinner, bro."
Mane was right, considering it was the middle of winter, so Egg and Wemmbu followed Mane back into his treehouse. Wemmbu silently cursed Mane for having so many stairs in his house, especially now that his legs felt like they were made of jelly. After what felt like an eternity, although it was only two minutes, they arrived at the penultimate storey of Mane's treehouse. On that storey was a large dining table, plus majority of Mane's food reserves and a small kitchen.
"Aight, I'll get started on dinner," Mane announced, heading towards the kitchen. Wemmbu began to follow him, but was quickly stopped by his mentor. "You sit bro, you've done enough today." Hesitantly, Wemmbu took a seat at the long oak table Mane had on the far side of the room, joined by Eggchan not too long after.
"Training going well?" Egg initiated conversation with Wemmbu. The purple demon nodded. "Mane says I'm the best student he's ever had."
"I said you're improving! Those are different things!" Mane yelled from the kitchen, where he had started to prepare some steak.
Egg giggled. "Bro is not him," he commented, earning a mace hit from his friend. "Okay, chill bro! I'm sorry!" Wemmbu let out his signature shrill laugh, sitting back down in his chair.
They caught up for another half hour before they were finally joined by ManePear, who had kindly prepared them some steak and mushroom stew. "Bone apple tea," Mane said with flourish. Egg frowned. "Isn't it bon appétit, bro?" he corrected him gently, and was met with a wind charge to the face.
With grace, Mane sat at the head of the table, beginning to ravenously dig into his steak.
Wemmbu guffawed. "You really love your dinner bro," he commented, his voice slightly muffled from his own steak in his mouth.
"Dinner is the most important meal of the day, bro," Mane argued. "After a long day of hard work and grinding, you get to sit back and just chill bro. Dinner's just the superior meal." As if to prove his statement, Mane lifted his bowl of soup and slurped it up, making eye contact with Wemmbu the entire time.
The purple demon buried his face in his hands, shaking with laughter. His long tail swayed in amusement.
They sat at the table under the yellow lights of the torches overhead, catching each other up on what they had been doing that day. Mane and Wemmbu had been training for almost the entire day, taking a brief break to loot some Mafia stashes. Egg, on the other hand, had apparently taken to learning some traditional herbal recipes using the plants outside. Wemmbu made a mental note to warn Mane about it later, as once Egg got his hands on someone's garden, it would be barren within seconds.
Then, Egg suggested they do something. "Yo, how about we play two truths and a lie bros?" he suggested. Wemmbu would've instantly agreed had Mane not been there, as his mentor was certainly above childish games like that. "Nah," Wemmbu declined, instead focusing on his stew. Next to him, however, he heard a high-pitched, energised squeal. "Yes bro!" Mane agreed instantly, nodding so hard his blindfold almost slipped off.
"Wemmbu?"
"Fine."
"I'll go first," Mane offered enthusiastically, and without waiting for more than a second, began. "Hm...I only wear a blindfold because Flame does and it lowkey looks aura, Zam trapped me in an obsidian box because I got really hungry and ate a stack of god apples from his vault, and I once dropped a mace on Flame's head because he stepped on a creaky floorboard."
"I don't know bro, the first one seems accurate enough," Egg mused.
"D'alright, bro. No need to slander me like that!" Mane protested, chortling. But nah, bro. It was lowkey my idea."
"Somehow I refuse to believe that," Egg remarked. Mane, who had since lowered his head to continue with his steak, looked up slowly. His gaze alone was enough to immediately cause Egg to get out of his chair and hide behind it. "Yo, am I cooked?" the angel whispered to Wemmbu.
"Nah bro, come out. You're just a little chungy bro, I'm just having fun," Mane reassured him.
A moment later, Egg piped up. "Wait...does that mean you actually dropped a mace on Flame's head?"
Mane grinned, his sharp, pearly white teeth glistening under the torchlight. "Yeah bro. He stepped on that one creaky plank in our house, and I thought he was an intruder so I might've dropped the closest thing I saw on his head." The lion shrugged nonchalantly, as if he was just talking about the weather.
The table erupted into howls of laughter, Egg banging the table top with his clenched fist. Wemmbu could feel his own tears of mirth brimming in his eyes as he laughed, breathless, alongside his closest friends.
Although he would never admit it, he had to agree with Mane. Dinner was the best meal of the day, not just because of the rewards reaped at the end of the day, but because he got to spend time he would otherwise never get to spend with his best friends.
He loved spending time with Egg and Mane, through all the kind gestures and hours of training. They were his rock. His home.
This was his home.
He was home.