Chapter Text
Azure couldn’t ask to be in a better position in life then the one he was in right now.
It had been a long journey. A journey with many physical, emotional, and psychological ups and downs. Loss and victories intertwined with one another like bows that could never come undone, much like how the Brotherhood had been formed on the shared goal of taking down the Jade Emperor, it’d quickly come falling apart when it came time to doing just that, all thanks to a celestial primates surrender. It took decades to pick up the pieces and rebuild what had been severely broken and severed, but with a little bit of blood, sweat, tears and power? They pulled through. By some unknown miracle they had even if it was just by a thread. Many things would occur; the disbandment and regrouping of the Brotherhood, Demon Bull King somehow having the once Princess, now Queen Iron Fan, the Jade Emperors DAUGHTER side in their cause. Truly, how can you be such a terrible Emperor that even your own kin say as such? Azure hadn’t but a clue and at first and, if he were to be entirely truthful; he wasn’t all too keen on having her stand alongside them, especially when it became as clear as crystals that there was a betrothal blooming between Demon Bull King and Queen Iron Fan, but his un-keenness would quickly dissipate over time when Iron proved to not only be a great ally, but an amazing force of reason and neutrality when it was needed. Though, even with the obvious sights of love that were (not even tried) to be kept secret, it still came as a shock when a fiery haired child came into the mix of it all. Red Son.
Peng, his ever so sweet and kind mate, would make the comment on how it was a good thing the spawn took more after his mother rather than his father when it came to size. They were swiftly smacked at the backside of their head by Macaque who was swift to tell them to “shut the fuck up!” in a hissed whisper.
It was definitely an interesting thing to bare witness to, as well as fairly amusing watching the usually loud and proud Demon Bull King become gentle and quiet every time he’d hold his son, a look of fondness and awe that could only described as if he was holding the world in his palms - which, given how small the boy was, he very much was holding what he probably believed to be his world. A world that he and Queen Iron Fan swore to protect with every drop of blood in their bodies and would make that especially known to the Jade Emperor when he deemed the child a threat for how much power he held inside him, that the only way to make sure that the fire within him would not burn the whole universe to ash was to cut him down while they had the chance.
Yeah, it was a surprise to nobody whatsoever when everyone, especially Demon Bull King and especially Queen Iron Fan, did not take those choice of words well.
When he made the offer them either handing the creature (as the emperor would put it) in exchange for some sort of peace, it would be Queen Iron Fan to declare with her full chest that’d be over her rotting, cold, dead carcass before he even dared to think of laying a finger on their child. Azure watched in real time as his bull companion practically fell in love all over again as this was happening, it was clear at that point the bull most certainly had a type. Honestly though, who was Azure to judge? The lion demon knew he’d be no better if it was Peng making the same heated and hate filled claims over the safety of their child, mean, if they were to have any of course.
“I’m not carrying an infant.” Peng stated, taking a casual sip of their drink as the lion demon almost choked on his own beverage at the abrupt statement before clearing his throat and looking at the eagle demon in heavy perplexion.
“Wh- Where on earth did that come from?” Azure asked, Peng looked up at the Lion with a raise brow. “Don’t act as if I haven’t seen the way you get all soft when the little fire hellian is around. You go all gooey especially when you see Bull and Iron be all parental with him too, it wasn’t exactly something that, even if you tried to keep it hidden, did a poor job at doing so.” “W-Well, I mean…” The lion fumbled on his tongue, clearing his throat as his face softly flushed. “I wouldn’t ask that of you if you told me you had no interest of having children Peng, I wouldn’t force you to want something you didn’t want to begin with.” “I know you wouldn’t, Azure.” Peng responded, the faintest of a smile on their beak as they looked up at Azure.
“I will admit, while I guess I do have a strong case of what you’d call ‘baby fever’, I don’t think I’d necessarily make that good of a father, especially with becoming the Jade Emperor…” “Hey, you at least couldn’t do as bad as what the Emperor did. Old prude messed up so horribly that his own daughter wants his head on the chopping block.” Peng snickered, and Azure couldn’t help but let out a small huff of amusement as he gave a smile of his own. “Maybe so but…Still, I don’t want to have a child if it means I could run the risk of possibly making them feel unwanted should my duties as emperor overwhelm me.” “Well, you have me, don’t you?” “Well yes but..Wait, you just said-“ “I said that I didn’t want to carry one, not that I didn’t want one at all. Only after this war, though, I’m not exactly keen on getting grey feathers from having some old man trying to kill our kid on a weekly basis. That sounds reasonable, don’t you think?”
Who knew such a short response could fill Azures heart with so much endearment and excitement, something that served as more of a reason to further pursue the defeat of the Jade Empereor. He would agree however the possibilities of a child would need to wait for much later, when the world was safer and bloodshed wasn’t at a constant flow.
Fate seemed to have other plans, however.
One day, Red Son lost complete control of his powers, much as his parents tried to contain it - even with the aid of the fellow Brotherhood, it proved to be simply just too dangerous for the toddler to keep. It was quickly decided that a ritual would need to take place, a ritual that would need the help of unexpected (and least keen) helpers; The famous buddha Tang Sanzang, Ao Lie, Nezha, Demon Bull King himself, and…Sun Wukong.
Yeah, that was surely a fun way of reuniting. There was no time for pleasantries though(not like there would be anything remotely pleasent), as action needed to be taken immediately. While the ritual took place, the Jade Emperor must have somehow found out about the ritual as well as where it took place and chose that as the perfect opportunity to send an army to attack them, leaving the rest of the Brotherhood to fight off the army. It wasn’t even that the army were really trying to fight them either, they all had one goal; to get past those who stood in their way to execute a child, a child who's only crime was being born with powers too great for himself to handle.
Azure would not let that happen. None of them would. It’d be a cold day in the Underworld before Azure would let his comrades endure the pain and despair the death of their one and only son would bring them. The boy did not deserve to be punished for having powers that far exceeded his capabilities of controlling as he was only so young, the boy had only just begun to figure out how to walk, no kidding he’d have no idea how to control his powers! It made Azures blood boil that the Jade Emperor, this boys grandfather, refused to see that, not even seeming to be willing to view Red Son as simply a child, no no, but instead as a threat that needed to be exterminated.
By the end of it, all his fur and armour had splatters of crimson that would take weeks to wash out and away, his throat and arms burned, ached, and throbbed with pain and exhaustion. No one else came out of the battle unscathed either, having their own various wounds and aches, regardless, they’d come out of it alive and the ritual had proven to be a perfect success, the boys fire being subdued and contained in what would come to be known as the Rings of Samadhi, all was looking to be a perfect victory.
Until Azure saw the damage that had been done.
When he saw the village that had been caught in this blurs of violence.
Azure felt his stomach drop in horror as he looked around at the ruined village, seeing bodies of those who had no involvement in what had occurred, innocent bystanders that were caught in the violent crossfires of a battle they didn’t even know would be taking place near what would have been their normally peaceful home. The most heartbreaking sight to the lion was as he walked through the village, his foot came into contact with a skipping rope that had faint stains of red on its rope and handles.
He did not dare begin to wonder as to what could have happened to the owner of it.
The group were silent as they travelled through the village, trying to find any survivors, silent prays hung heavy in the air as each of them hoped the next body they would find would only be an unconscious one. When the situation was about to sink in, a muffled wail was heard. Heads snapped towards the direction of the sound and Azure didn’t even stop to think of the possibilities of it being a trap. He briskly made his way over to the wreckage of what once seemed to be a horse carriage and with aching arms, lifted it up and tossed it to the side with a grunt. The sight that would greet him would be one he’d never forget.
Two adults, a man and a women, laid close together and seeming to cling onto one another by their sleeves. They had long since passed, glassy and vacant eyes half lidded, covered in dirt and chipped wood pieces as their bodies shielded a much smaller, weaker, louder, living body.
Oh god. No god please no.
Little green eyes looked up at him, wide eyed and pooled with large tears that ran down her cheeks as she was covered head to toe in dirt and brittle pieces of wood chips, little arm springing up to reach out for him. Without thinking, Azure would immediately reach down to pick up the small girl, giving silent apologies to the parents as he gently pried their child out of their arms and into his. He was almost alarmed with how quickly she was to cling onto him, little fists tightly grasping onto his mane. Poor girl couldn’t have been no older than six.
“Mo-Mom and Dad won’t move! Why won’t they move!? Make them move! Please make them move!”
In this moment, Azure truly wondered how the Jade Emperor could rest at night when he could leave behind tragedies such as these. Leave behind the tragedy of a child being so young she couldn’t even conceive the reality of her parents being dead because of an Emperors blood lust to kill another child.
The Brotherhood would not long after doing one last survey of the village to find anymore survivors, only to come up that the small girl was but the only one to live through the tragedy(Azure wasn’t sure if that made the situation any better or worse), they’d make their way back to the base of operations. Tang, Ao Lie, and Wukong would accompany them. There were no verbal objections made, all were too tired to even try to form any.
Azure never let the small girl go, she never let go of him either, eventually falling asleep in his arms as her little hands continued to grip onto his mane. He would notice Ao Lie looking up at the child with a look of sympathy, though greater then the one the others would have.
When they made it back to base, Ao Lie would tell him why.
“She’s my granddaughter, Long Xiajiao.” Ao Lie would begin, sitting opposite of the lion demon with a sombre and guilty expression. “She has dragon blood in her, like mine. Got it from me and her…Mother…Had I known that they’d been so close by I…” The white horses grip on his cup slightly tightened, lips pursing tightly together. Azure could only feel nothing but sympathy in this instance, say what he will about these group of disciples, he wouldn’t have wished this on any of them. Not even the Monk or Wukong would he see deserving of something like this. It went without saying that the group that joined them would be staying - well, not really, a heavy discussion as well as a small argument, especially in regards to Wukongs return and stay. To the monkeys credit, he at least knew to bite his tongue when Iron Fan and Peng chewed him out for the idiocies he had committed, especially towards Macaque. Granted, he did overhear Peng chew Macaque out later on for being “so stupidly loyal to begin with” and that they “swear to god, if you two morons get back together in some way after all that has happened, I’ll start plucking out my own feathers and shove them down your ears”.
Which, to be honest? Pretty understandable reaction. Probably the most tame, too.
This stay of people would also include Xiaojiao. The girl would quickly wriggle her little self into the lions heart and, much as Peng would deny it, theirs too.
She was a spunky little thing, bright eyed and grinning ear to ear on a constant basis. Her and Red Son has quickly become familiar with each other and truly shared a almost brother and sister like dynamic, altering between rough housing with each other to crying when the other started crying because of said rough housing and getting hurt as a result. What would be most noticeable to Azure though is whenever he’d be training or sparring, the little girl would be hiding just around the corner, peeking out and wide eyed in awe as she’d silently watch for hours on end, only then would she not be constantly moving and bouncing with what seemed to be endless energy.
“She is aware that we can see her, isn’t she?” Peng asked, stepping out of his battke stance and looked over to where Xiajiao had been peeking out from, the small girl letting out a small ‘eep!’ as she froze, realising then and there she had been caught. Azure could only smile and chuckle in amusement. “She is now.” Azure hummed, turning his head to then look towards the girl with a raised brow. “Long, is there something you need?” “Uh- No? Nuh uh, nothing at all! I’m a-okay!” “Then what brings you here?” “Well…I was wondering if…You could teach me how to do that cool sword thingies I see you do.” Xiajiao explained, stepping out from behind the corner she had been hiding in and gripping the bottom of her shirt. “I wanna learn how to do all those cool things you and PenPen do!”
“PenPen?” Peng scoffed under their breath, a brow raised but regardless, they decided to press further on the little girls request. “You wish to take part in combat training, do you?” “Uh huh! I wanna do all those cool things you do - like when you go all ‘swish!’ and ‘swoosh’ with your pointy staff thingy while you’re flying! It’s so cool!” Azure had to bite back a chuckle when he saw the clear as day praise get to his mate, their feathers ever so slightly puffing up as a confident gleam shone in their eyes and quickly, a grin grew. “Well, I am quite a skilled fighter, so it’s only natural you’d want to take after me.” Peng stated confidently, and the small girl would be quick to pipe up once more. “And Mister Azure too! I wanna swing a sword like he does too!” Xiajiao exclaimed, her smile and eyes almost blinding with how much they shined as she did a quick motion of swinging of an imaginary sword. Now, Azure wasn’t sure if Ao Lie would necessarily be okay with them training his granddaughter how to fight with swords…But…Surely, least teaching her the basics wouldn’t hurt, would it?
“Well, why don’t we help you achieve that then, hm?” Azure hummed, and he almost fell apart as the girls face only glowed even brighter with glee, letting out a squeal as her tiny feet stomped into the dirt ground in excitement.
That’s how the rest of the day was spent. The two training the small girl on the training grounds. She’d be given a wooden sword(much to her displeasure, confidentially claiming she could handle a ‘big kids’ weapon. Much as the little girl expressed her confidence, neither of the demons wanted to take that chance.). Xiajiao would prove to be quite a quick learner when it came to the sword, quickly getting a hang of basic blocks and attacks. It wouldn’t be long before Azure and Peng sat off to the side on a bench as they carefully watched the girl spar with a magical projection of a small monster, least something easy enough for a child to handle. “Swing with your body, not just your arms!” Peng called out, rolling their eyes when they received a “I know!” in response from the small girl as she continued, still mainly using her arms to swing the wooden sword. “That girl has a surprising amount of love for violence.” “I wouldn’t say that Peng, I’d say she’s just heavily interested in combat.” “Yeah, which is violence.”
Azure let out a small huff through his nose, softly grinning as he glanced down at his mate who would return the expression. “I will admit though, I do see a lot of potential in that child, not too many people can pick up on the basics so eagerly and quickly, much less so young…” “You’re right, I wonder if she’d be keen in pursuing more training…?” “Oh, I think she’d be delighted too!”
The two demons snapped their heads to the new voice, seeing none other then Ao Lie had taken a seat opposite of Peng without either one of the two noticing somehow, smiling as if he hadn’t almost given the two a near heart attack. “Xiajiao for a while has expressed great interest in combat training, she’s quite a feisty little girl!” “So…Why haven’t you? Mean, you are the White Horse Dragon, surely you of all people would be able to teach her a thing or two.” Peng rose a brow. “Ah, while you are right, the things I would be able to teach her she’s not ready for as she hasn’t tapped into her dragon powers yet. Combat skills I’m not exactly all the well versed with either and…Well, I don’t think I’d be able to keep up with her as well as you two can right now.” “So, what? You want us to pick up the slack on your end and train your granddaughter for you?” Peng asked, crossing their arms. Ao Lie sighed. “Believe me, if I could I would, but…She’s expressed to me how she really wants to learn from you two. She’s been watching you two for a while, don’t you know? She greatly admires you two. For you Peng, It’s your flight and confidence. For you Azure, your strength and kindness.” The white horse explained, like a switch had been flipped his lax and aloof demeanour dropping. Azure couldn’t help but feel unnerved at times at just how the dragon could do that at basically a drop of a hat.
“These past few days have been..A lot, for her to process. I don’t think it’s even fully sink in for her yet what has happened to her parents. She greatly misses them and..I am no better. Despite the despair of it all, though, I have never seen her be as happy as she has been since arriving here. The way her and Red Son bicker and play together, the way she always gets so excited for dinner because she absolutely adores the stories that are told at the table, and most of all…The way she speaks so highly of you two. I won’t lie, I am a little envious but I can’t say I blame her, especially when it comes to you Azure. You were the first person to reach out and hold her when she needed it the most, that’s going to be something she’ll never forget.” Ao Lie smiled. The two remained in stunned silence as a flurry of emotions clashed within them. Honour, flattery, softness, happiness, and the need urge to start bawling right then and there.
Who knew a child’s admiration could have such an emotional impact.
“I know this may be a lot to ask, and forgive me for doing so, but…Would it be possible for you two take Xiajiao in? As a pupil? As it stands right now I can’t take Xiajiao with me, not only do I not really have anywhere safe where she can stay but…I’m not exactly all that versed with taking care of small children, you know? Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore her! But she can be quite…A handful, and I don’t think I’d be quite suitable to handle her energy and desires for violence all that well at a constant rate.” The white haired male sheepishly laughed, scratching the back of his neck in sheepishness(if you could even call it scratching, what with his hand being completely hidden in his sleeve and all).
“It doesn’t have to be permanent! Perhaps until this whole thing with the Jade Emperor settles down? I am more than willing to provide anything you two may need if it means you two will take Xiajiao under your wings, maybe quite literally in your case Peng.” Ao Lie briefly giggled, but would be quick to compose himself once more (Maybe due to the unamused glare Peng gave him at the unfunny joke. To be fair, Azure did find it kind of funny).
“But…Yes, that’s my request. You two don’t have to agree right away, gods no, I know this would be a lot to ask for considering the circumstances at hand, but I would greatly appreciate it if you two would put it into thought, I also wouldn’t hold it against you two for saying no, either, again, the choice is yours.”
A choice Azure almost wanted to say yes to right then and there.
In the past, he would have put more thought into it, tell Ao Lie he’d think about it and discuss it with him tomorrow, but this was…Different, the idea of being able to teach this little girl; this rowdy, loud, beautiful, brave and strong little girl as his student was…Something that seemed to be euphoric, to be able to see those bright green eyes that would gleam with excitement and passion with a grin full of little sharp little teeth made the demons heart warm up to where he thought it was going to catch ablaze. Peng was right, too, she definitely showed great promise in becoming an exceptional fighter, a warrior at that too, perhaps! No bone or vein in his body could bring himself to say no, even if he was held at a point of life or death he just…Couldn’t. Sure, it’d be bittersweet for when it’d eventually come time for Xiajiao to leave, but hey, that just means he’d have to enjoy the time they would have and teach her as much as she could so when she did step into the world? She’d not but be a feisty little girl, but a fierce women that could take on the gods.
“I would be honoured to mentor Xiajiao, Ao Lie.” Azure responded, softly smiling down at the White Dragon Horse whose face lit up with excitement and relief. Azure then looked down at their mate. “Peng, what do you think? If you’re not up for it, I could just mentor her on my own.” The bird demon went silent, brows furrowed as they seemed to try any and all reason to say no, they probably did, but they were no doubt the same as Azure and couldn’t find it anywhere in them to say no. Their answer only solidified that even more.
“Much as the thought of watching over two brats is going to do my feathers in…I suppose I’m not too opposed to it. Very well then, I shall mentor her as well. After all, the more exceptional warriors such as me and Azure training her, the more of a true warrior she will become! Truly, she will make all her enemies crumble their knees just at the mere peep of her name once we’ve taught her our ways!” Peng proudly proclaimed, grinning in matching confidence and and Ao Lie could all but smile and clapped the end of their sleeves together. “Oh, goodie! Thank you both so much! Truly, you have no idea how much this means not much to me, but her as well. I am well aware that my group and yours have many personal grudges between us, so this truly is a blessing!” Ao Lie exclaimed gratefully. “Again just…Thank you, I know with confidence I can trust her to be in safe arms within the Brotherhood.”
“Well, of course! Mean we have managed to keep the little fire hellian out of that old man’s hands, who’s to say we can’t do the same for dragon girl too?” Peng hummed, Ao Lie softly chuckled. “I trust you both to it, now, I best let you two get back to mentoring my granddaughter as…Well…I think she could use a little bit of your teachings right about now.” Confused, the two looked back to where Xiajiao was and, to their horror, she had dropped the sword at some point and now clung onto the little illusion monster, somehow managing to physically grab it and bite into it. “Wha- HEY! No! We do not attempt to bite or eat the enemy! Bad! Bad dragon girl!!” Peng exclaimed, quickly flying over to the small girl, Azure stayed where he sat as, guiltily, he began to laugh with Ao Lie as he watched the scene unfold of Peng desperately trying to pull the small girl away from the monster, or at least pull it out her little jaws without hurting her.
It was this day that Azure found only but another reason to push forward with the Jade Emperors downfall; To create a better, safer world for mortals, to make a world where his brothers and others like them could be free, to become an emperor all could feel safe with; brothers, friends, and his beloved especially.
Now, however, there was but one more reason to do what he needed to do.
To give Long Xiajiao, someone who he’d quickly come to view as a child like his own, a world where she’d never again have to cling onto the closest stranger in fear, and he’d be willing to ensure that future by any means necessary.
He couldn’t wait to see the women she’d grow up to be, he could almost see it now; a brave, spunky, loyal warrior that held her blade to protect all those that stood around her, a warrior that would fight with every fibre and bone in her body like it’d be her last, a warrior that’d make him proud like no other.
Truly, he could no wait to see who Long Xiajiao, granddaughter to Ao Lie The White Horse Dragon, now pupil to Azure Lion and Golden-Winged Eagle Peng, would become.