Chapter Text
You know, sometimes Mk thinks that Monkey king forgets that, he is in fact, an adult.
Compared to him, sure he might as well be an infant, hell maybe compared to your regular demon he's still young, but he is human. And by human years, he is an adult. It’s not a bad thing per say, that Monkey king so often forgets that humans work differently. It’s cute! Plus, he loves getting some good monkey cuddles, so if that means acting ten years younger, then so be it.
It just- Makes things awkward, like now watching as both his mentors turn to look at him with what can only be known as the ‘you wanna repeat that?’ that every parent for some reason just knows. He thinks he distinctly remembers Tang and Pigsy giving him a similar look- actually do all parents know how to do that? He’ll have to ask Mei because it feels a little bizarre that this is not that first time he has been in a situation like this-
“You want to repeat what you said buddy?” Monkey King's attention was suddenly all on him, completely forgetting about the argument he was having with Macaque about ‘who is a better mentor’ a minute earlier. Wow, Monkey King really looked like a mother who was about to go off .
He has to admit though, if he knew that talking about his love life would stop the two immortal monkeys from going at each other's throats all the time he would have spilled the tea a long time ago. So, like the smart man he is, he takes the bait and repeats what he said.
“You guys fight more than me and my ex did?”
A mistake, if you’ve ever had a parent.
As soon as the question-statement left his lips he realized how much of a fool he was. You don’t just respond to those questions. They are asking for confirmation, and he just gave it to them. But this time he isn’t lucky enough for it to be Pigsy or even worse, Tang.
He is an unlucky bastard and the gods hate him, so it has to be the two overprotective immortal monkeys he finds himself acquainted with.
“I’m sorry, your ex?” He hears Sun Wunkong say with what almost could be confused with a growl, barely restrained anger and confusion mixing into one.
“I’m sorry, did I hear fighting ?” He hears Macaque echo, finishing with a chuckle, sounding mostly amused and teasing, but his known macaque for long enough to realized the undertone of murder radiating off of him at the implication.
Which, Macaque isn’t wrong per say, but still; he didn’t know what he expected. It’s not like they were doing anything productive; simply sitting near a pond in the forest at flower fruit Mountain, their training forgotten hours ago- He didn’t see the harm in explaining his complicated, past relationship.
Plus, who wouldn’t take the chance to talk shit about their ex? MK is a kind man but even he falls to such a pleasure.
“Oh yeah, I have an ex. We used to fight. A lot. ”
The celestial monkeys stared at him, he stared right back. If he was going to talk about this he was going to have fun.
“You gonna elaborate on that kiddo?” Macaque tilted his head, he could see his tail going from side to side-a movement repeated by Wunkongs own tail, just way harsher than it needs to be- a little annoyed at having to wait for confirmation.
And Mk genuinely considers spilling his guts out about her , but he hates to realize, he wants to engage in a little revenge. A little prank per say.
He studies Sun Wukong and Macaque, his own tail swaying and ears twitching and to really sell it; a contemplative hum sounding through the air.
“Nah”
And just like that, he gets up and walks away. He can hear a couple of the younger monkeys following him above in the trees.
Good! He kind of hopes they enjoy the show.
He also wonders if this is how Macaque feels when his ‘scheming’? Because if so, God’s almighty he completely understands why Macaque loves doing it. He also thinks that maybe he should stop hanging out with Red Son and Mei as much as he does, their becoming a bad influence on him. He swears he didn’t used to be like this, and now look at him, listening to both his mentors choke on their surprise as they stand up to follow him.
He calls it payback for the time they decide to just not tell him he was born as one of them. That he came out of a stone egg during an eclipse, carved by the wind. That they took care of him when he was younger, but decided their relationship was too unstable for a child. That they left him in a box full of peaches near the restaurant and hoped that the people inside would take him in. That they hid all his monkey features with some magic and just stalked him until he picked up that staff; and just didn't tell him anything during their adventures.
He was still pretty pissed about that if he was being honest.
“Alright, who taught you that? Cause it wasn’t me, but I gotta say I’m kinda proud kiddo. Never saw you as the scheming type,” He had to stop in his tracks as Macaque appeared leaning forward in front of him, the shadows that had grown bigger without him noticing, going back to their normal sizes.
“You can never have too many mentors, remember?” Was his quick answer as he turned right and continued walking through the canopy, remembering the sleepover where Iron Fahn had joined mid-way through tea time and decided to teach all of them a thing or two about strategy. He decided to walk a little faster and started paying more attention to the warping shadows.
He heard rustling up in the trees before he had to make a hard stop as Sun Wukong jumped in front of him.
“Oh come on Bud!,” Monkey King grabbed both of his hands and started twirling them both, eliciting a surprised laugh out of him, "We promise we won't tell anybody!”
As he continued laughing he responded, “You guys are the only ones who don't know!” And it was true. The two monkeys were the only ones who didn't know he had an ex; Mei obviously knew, she was the first person who even knew he had a crush on them, best friend privileges and all that; and after a particular bad fight he remembers going to Tang and Pigsy about it, which is when they learned he had gotten himself a partner; the he remembers talking to Sandy about getting some good old therapy (that he could not afford, and was desperately asking if he could borrow a therapy cat); and he did make that one joke while watching a movie at Nezhas place; and then his seventy percent sure the Demon Bull Family knew of his ex.
That was a complete accident though. He had simply gotten a little drunk at a sleepover and started saying that when his other partners fought, it gave him not so kind flashbacks (and boy was that a conversation, but he can proudly say he can now recognize the different types of yelling his partners part take in. Plus, Red Son has been working on not screaming as much while Mei has been helping him identify the tone of a conversation. He loved them so much).
At the declaration that they were the only two out of the know, the spinning stopped as Wukong gasped in extreme offense-fuck his pretty sure you could hear it from Megaopolis the gasp was so loud- he had to stop for a minute to get back his senses and for the world to stop spinning when he heard Macaque appear from behind him, “Jeez kiddo, your trust is harder to earn than I thought.”
Oh no no no no no no no- He didn't even need to look for the second meaning in that. He wanted to have fun but he didn't want them to feel like he didn't trust them. He knew how that felt, and he did not want his mentors to go through what he did. He got his bearings together enough to let go of Wukong, who let him go without a fight, and walked a few feet to where Macaque was. He quickly studied Macaque and said ‘ fuck it ’ and bear hugged him before Macaque has the chance to oppose.
‘Oof’ was all he heard as he nuzzled between Macaque shoulder and neck, quickly finding Macaque's tail and wrapping it around his own, apologetically explaining, “I'm so, so sorry, I didn't want to make it sound like I don't trust you guys. I do! With my life actually! We just never really had the time to talk about this type of personal thing with the DBK, then the Spider queen, and all the other stuff that happened and before LBD it was hard to think about that stuff when you were trying to kill me but then after it just never crossed my mind to tell you guys! Plus you guys never asked and I-’’
He stopped ranting once he felt Macaque return the hug and a purr sounded through the air, Macaque rubbing his cheek against his own, silently saying “Just a joke kid, but thanks for the reassurance.”
He responded by giving a little chirp, getting distracted when he heard Monkey King cooing at them and softly saying “Looks like the Six-Eared Macaque is going soft, who would've thought?”
At that Macaque responded with a growl tightening his grip just a little before completely letting go, which Mk took as an opportunity to quickly turn around and tackle Monkey King, who yelped in surprised before catching him, doing a little twirl to gain back balance before eagerly hugging and nuzzling MK just as hard.
Between the trio's laughter, Monkey King lets go of MK and asks, “So, that means we get to be filled in or?-”
He once again considers actually telling them instead of jumping around the bush, but he still has a lot of energy and a strong urge to run. A voice that had been growing and nagging at him ever since he started training with Macaque again, properly training with him, not the awful training that was actually a ruse to get back at Wukong. Sometimes it was overwhelming how much he just wanted to go. Leave, run, fly and feel the wind rushing towards him-
The Wind. His ears twitched as they felt the soft touch of the wind as it picked up, whispers flowing into his ears so softly (so softly he thought he was hallucinating) to go.
Mk didn’t notice it, but his mentors did. The boy had gone from considering their question once again while playing with the hem of his jacket mindlessly to completely still, focused on a point in the distance, eyes turned golden, his ears twitching and moving to try and hear something . They both glanced at each other, Wukong not being able to hear anything that might cause that reaction and starting to wonder what was making the kid act like that while Macaque was looking at Mk in amusement and caution. After all, before he was born of shadows, he was born of wind and he’d been in MK position once.
Before either of them could step in though, MK suddenly lit up and booked it, running towards the rest of the canopy like it was his personal playground. Scaring both of his mentors as he yelled, “Let’s play a game of hide and seek! Whoever finds me first gets to know all about it!”
The two mentors stood there in shock as the challenge set in and MK kept getting farther and farther.
“I hope you know, he got that from you”
Macaque laughed at the offended spluttering from Wukong, who responded back with, "I don’t know what you mean Macaque! Last time I checked you were the dramatic one”
Macaque hummed as he listened to MK run, lifting up his glamor to reveal his six ears and lifting up the muffling magic he usually had on. If this was going to be a game of hide and seek, the Six-Eared Macaque was going to win it. Plus, the idea of Wukong just not knowing was a hilarious thought.
“So we can both agree I'm gonna win, right? After all, I don't think you have the skills necessary for this type of thing, Great Sage,” he leaned forward toward Wukongs face, close enough to see the little eye twitch at his comment.
“Oh your on Liu’er,’’ Wukong's eyes burned with the challenge, a grin appearing in his face as he transformed into an eagle and flew out of the forest towards the direction they both saw MK run towards.
Macaque shook his head, a similar smile appearing on his face as he opened a shadow portal, “And the game begins”
‘This will be fun’ Macaque thinks, the last his six ears are able to pick up being the rushing wind and distant wing beast.