The Side I Choose

|IV|

The Backpack
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Jack and Luca sat across from one another, neither really able to discuss about Jack's confession. So with some small effort Jack changed the subject. "So umm.. what did Caesar want you to talk to me about?" His voice was quiet and awkward. Again it went silent but it wasn't long before Luca moved his hands to answer back. "We talked about your stay." Jack felt like he knew what Caesar asked of the gorilla. "He made some rules I'm guessing?" Luca nodded. "You stay with me at all times if you leave here. You can't leave village without me and If another ape does anything to you, you tell me." Luca signed feeling off as he did. He wasn't exactly social all the time so his signing was lacking but he figured atleast this was good practice.

"Ok." Was all Jack said, no hesitation and no protest just compliance. This human was still so unusual to Luca, it made him curious. "You have no issues?" Luca asked. "No, it's fair. I'm human and no ape is gonna trust me. I expect and respect the rules." Jack explained. Rules weren't at all an issue to him and there wasn't anything wrong with them. Caesar would want to keep an eye on him, he doesn't know what Jack will do and he doesn't want an ape harming Jack if he isn't doing anything wrong.

Luca gave a nod of his head, he felt as though he really shouldn't underestimate Jack. He wasn't like other people Luca had met and seemed to be a good person despite the lies. He was harmless for the most part, he was small and in pretty bad shape, what harm could he do?

"So Luca, what about you? What's your story?" Jack asked. Luca didn't know if he should answer that, he may not have had such a terrible past as Jack but it was still wasn't pleasant to talk about and to talking about it to a human would feel strange. But as he thought about it he didn't actually feel too bad about the idea of telling him. "I tell you later." He signed. Right then however, wasn't an ideal time to share stories or get to know one another. Besides they might need to discuss other things about the village first. "Alright." Jack said giving a slight nod of his head.

"Wait.. where's my backpack?" Realization hit him. His bag was no where in sight. And it was full of alot of valuable items and if he was really planning on staying alive he kinda wanted to keep them. "It's at my post." Luka relayed to the now panicking person. "Has anyone looked through it!?" Jack asked becoming panicked. "Yes, A council member did. Why?" Luca asked, his concern and confusion showing through his sign. "There where pictures in there, with Caesar and me. I can't let anyone else know!" Jack said frantically. He didn't want anyone else knowing, the more who knew the more likely Caesar would find out. "It was before you woke up, wouldn't they have told?" Luca pointed out. Jack felt doubtful, his little box wasn't easy to miss. It was bigger than his hand with a green, wooden pine tree hastily glued onto it. Unless the ape thought it of no importance he doubted they didn't see the contents inside. "I still need that backpack, it has all my stuff. Can we please get it?" Jack begged, he had only just gotten to the ape village and he knew he should be under a lock down until he was no longer considered a threat but this was important to him. "I'll talk to Caesar." Luca signed. Causing Jack to give a sigh of relief.

"Thank you and can you please promise me you won't tell." Jack asked of Luca before he could leave.

"I promise."

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Luca made his way out of the den catching the eyes of many apes, some shown resentment and some shown pitty for him. They must have thought Caesar ordering him to take in the human was something horrible and he did understood why they'd feel like that. But Jack wasn't a nuisance just odd, and human, he had only know him a day but already concluded him not to be of any threat. One ape's glare however, burned hot at Luca. This was an ape who could not have any sympathy for any human, it didn't matter if they hurt him or not. But Luca really couldn't blame Koba for feeling that hatred and rage. When Luca had first seen Jack at the cliff his instincts where to run or attack. He felt nothing but fear and anger, until the small human turned around and met Luca's eyes with pure sadness and grief. Now when he sees Jack's eyes, he sees how bright and lively they are though he still can see the inner torture going on underneath. He finds it hard to figure out what Jack is really feeling, then again he still barely knows him.