Chapter Text
Slowly moving through the branches, Tarzan watched Kaphi search every nest and under every bush for him, and he smothered his laughs as the little two-year-old ape kept destroying nests with determination to find him under one. The owner of the nest gave Kaphi a very disgruntled grunt, which made Kaphi shuffle away with an apologetic smile. Once she was a safe distance away from the angry adult ape, she sat down with a pout as she scanned the family.
Tarzan made a loud elephant noise as he hung upside down on the branch of the tree he was in, catching Kaphi's attention. She swung her head and glanced at the tree, spotting her upside-down brother. She giggled as she charged the tree, and Tarzan pulled himself up and started climbing the tree. It did not take long for Kaphi to reach the tree and start climbing herself, and she wasted no time catching up to her brother and grabbing his ankle.
"Kaphi catch Tarzan!" Kaphi declared. "Tag! You it."
Tarzan chuckled as he waited for Kaphi to climb down, allowing his sister a head start. While he would be concerned that Kaphi would excel at tag and hide and seek like all the other ape children his age, Kaphi was still a baby, which meant she was quite predictable. Her hiding spots weren't always well thought out.
After she had vanished somewhere in the family, Tarzan climbed down the tree and started looking for her, scanning each nest along the way, but he mostly headed back for his shared nest with his parents and sister. This is where Kaphi usually liked to run to, thinking it was the safest, most well-hidden place in the entire family. Every time.
Tarzan smirked when he saw a couple of leaves bundled up in the center of the large nest, and the leaves shook as the tiny ape under them tried to keep from laughing. Tarzan slowly crawled in the nest, staring at his sister before casually walking by her wadded up leaf pile.
"Hmm," Tarzan thought aloud, "Where did Kaphi go? I can't find her anywhere."
Kaphi struggled to keep her laughing quiet, and the leaves covering her shook a bit.
"Aha!" Tarzan said, jumping on a corner of the nest and lifting random leaves up. He tsked and dropped the leaves. "Nope, not there. Did Kaphi disappear? She is too good at this game."
The little leaf bundle shook again.
"Maybe she is hiding somewhere else," Tarzan said as he walked out of the nest before jumping on the tree just behind their nest. "Maybe I'll look in a different nest. Here I go."
Tarzan crawled along a branch hanging over the nest and hung upside down, holding on carefully with just his feet as he lowered his upper half down to hover over Kaphi's leaf bundle. He nearly held his breath to keep quiet while he waited, his hands ready to grab his sister.
There was no movement for a minute, then, Kaphi poked her head out, looking off into the family grounds cautiously before she smiled and threw the leaves off her. She was about to go running off to catch her brother by surprise when she squealed as Tarzan snatched her up and tickled her.
"Gotcha!" Tarzan said. "You thought you could hide from me?"
"Mercy for Kaphi!" Kaphi cried in between fits of chuckles as she kicked her feet and tried to grab her brother's arms to stop his hands from tickling her. "Mercy!"
"Okay," Tarzan said, dropping his sister back into the nest. He crossed his arms at her, still hanging upside down. "You've got a ten second head start."
Kaphi screamed as she ran out of the nest, and Tarzan dropped down from the tree, landing in the soft leaves and giving his sister a minute to zigzag between the family nests circling them. After a few seconds, Tarzan ran after her, quickly leaping for a vine to swing over the family and catch up to his sister. He landed just behind her, and she screamed and dodged to the right, and Tarzan ran after her.
"When I catch you," Tarzan threatened, "I'm going to eat you up."
"No!" Kaphi protested. "Kaphi taste bad."
"How do you know?"
"I know, I know. You no like."
"I'll be the judge of that!"
Kaphi scurried around a nest, nearly stumbling over her own feet, but she caught herself and avoided Tarzan's leap to catch her, and she laughed as she ran away again. Tarzan ran for a vine and used it to swing over the family once again and catch up to Kaphi. He grabbed another vine and swung himself forward and dropped down, landing right in front of Kaphi, and she was too slow to skid to a halt and collided into her brother, and they tumbled a bit before Tarzan managed to pin her down and tickle her once more.
"Now I eat you!" Tarzan pretended to munch on Kaphi as he tickled her, and she shrieked and squealed as she tried to escape her brother's attacks. She finally freed herself and crawled away a bit. When she tried running again, she tripped herself and went tumbling down a small hill.
"Kaphi!" Tarzan shouted. He bolted after her, glad to see she hadn't fallen down the hill far, and she sat up and rubbed her head gingerly. He ran up to her and looked her over, running a hand over her head in search of any cuts or injuries. "Are you okay?"
"I okay," Kaphi said, then she froze, her eyes widening before looking down. "Something tickles!"
Tarzan looked down as well and saw that Kaphi was sitting directly on an anthill, and several of the small, black insects were crawling up her. Tarzan snorted as he picked up his sister and moved her off the anthill, then brushed off the majority of the ants he saw.
"They on my head!" Kaphi said, pawing at and shaking her head miserably, flinging small ants this way and that.
"Here, let me see," Tarzan said. He settled behind her and picked through her hair, eating any little ant he came across as he groomed his sister. While it wasn't his favorite thing to do, he had grown used to the taste of most bugs and participated a bit more in social grooming with the family, but especially his immediate family. Kerchak had played a big role in enforcing that behavior with him, and right now, he did not mind it one bit to help his sister. Once he was sure there were no more ants crawling on Kaphi, he ruffled the small tuft of hair on her head.
"There, all clean."
Kaphi laughed and swatted at his hand playfully, then pounced on her brother, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down while mouthing his ear. Tarzan allowed her tackle for a moment before he rolled her over, so she was on top of him, then used his feet to lift his sister up in the air. She still tried to reach for him to wrestle him, so he used a move his father once used on him and pulled her close to turn her over, then wrapped his arms around her chest, pinning her arms to her sides, while he used his feet to keep a hold of her legs.
Kaphi squirmed a bit, then seemed to give up completely and sagged in his hold. She said, "You win, Tarzan."
Tarzan felt a bit of sympathy for his sister at her utter defeat, and he whispered in her ear, "Try moving your hands."
Kaphi frowned, but did what her brother said, wiggling her fingers, then she seemed to get the idea and tickled her brother. Tarzan laughed and let her go, jumping away from his sister as she came running at him to tickle him some more.
"Oh no," Tarzan said, falling over and laughing as Kaphi tickled his abdomen. "Have mercy, sister. I let you go!"
"Okay," Kaphi said, pulling away with a haughty look she could have only learned from Tarzan. She crossed her arms and said, "Kaphi give Tarzan mercy."
"Thanks," Tarzan said with a cockeyed smile. He glanced up the hill they were at the bottom of, then pulled his sister to his back, and she clung to him in a natural fashion. "We should get back to where everyone can see us. Dad will freak out when he can't find us—and we don't want a repeat of when you went missing."
Tarzan ran up the hill and back to the family grounds. Kaphi yawned and rested her head against Tarzan's own head as he carried her through the family nests and back to their own, where Kala was resting. She opened her eyes and smiled at her children as Tarzan climbed into the nest and pulled Kaphi from his back, setting her down next to him.
"What were you two up to?" Kala asked.
"Just playing," Tarzan said. He tilted his head at Kaphi as she plopped down on the soft leaves of the nest and closed her eyes, yawning once more. "I think it's nap time for Kaphi."
"It's naptime," Kerchak said as he walked up to the nest, "for the entire family."
"Aww, but I'm not tired," Tarzan said. He started to yawn but tried very hard to force his mouth shut and then offered an innocent smile to his father.
"So I see," Kerchak said. He picked up his daughter and settled into the nest next to his mate. Kaphi curled up in her father's arms, yawning and stretching briefly. "You managed to tire out your sister, though."
"We had fun," Tarzan said as he curled up against Kala, looking across his mother and over at his sister. He smiled at her small snores and watched her sleep peacefully for a few minutes before his own eyes betrayed him and he fell asleep, dreaming of more games with Kaphi.