Chapter Text
Mk watched Wukong sleep on his bed for hours.
He hardly tried to keep count. Not only did he not have an extra place of his own to sleep, but he was way too worried to even so much as try. It felt like his mind was running a million thoughts in a second, a million different awful scenarios or potential things that could have happened that led up to this.
To Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, vulnerable and unconscious in his student’s bed.
So the boy kept right by the monkey’s side. Eyes practically glued to his face.
Being so up close and personal with Monkey King was rare; in fact, if MK was remembering right, this was the first time he had ever seen him without his glamor. The fact that he had been hiding so much behind the magical disguise both worried and angered him.
The slivers of white in his mane almost reflected in the moon’s light, the fur looking so much more unkempt and burned, especially at the tips. Even with as much clothing Wukong wore Mk could still tell just by his face there were so many scars–the one sitting at his left eyebrow and the small ones on his rough, calloused hands were telling enough.
Mk wasn’t entirely sure if he should have tried to at least take off the top layers of his clothes to try to make him more comfortable, but every time Wukong so much as flinched or made a wounded sound, golden power flickering across his body, he didn’t know if moving him was a good idea.
Another surge of pure rage rushed through the boy as the memory of the race surfaced again. At the way Monkey King would look at him with those awfully sad eyes, and still tried to hide it anyway.
There was absolutely no way to tell if this was something that had been going on or if it just started. For all he knew this could have been at least partly the reason why the Great Sage had been in a coma for a whole week and the guy was, once again, hiding it. Lying to try to make it seem like nothing. But it also could have been something new, and there was absolutely no way to tell, and that’s what ticked Mk off the most.
He would, without a doubt, make sure that his teacher would know that lying, that hiding things, will no longer be tolerated . It didn’t matter why, it didn’t matter how bad or hard it was; Mk was more than happy and capable to help in any way he could, whether Wukong would like it or not.
He’d been dealing with his issues on his own for much too long, and all that’s done is cause problems for everyone involved. His mentor would have to learn, one way or another.
Just because Mk understood the reasons for his distance and hiding, doesn’t mean he’d excuse it or let it continue to happen. Enough was enough.
They were going to sit down and talk about it.
Another sound of pain snapped the boy out of his thoughts, that rising anger suddenly depleting as that worry came right back, Mk’s head snapping up to watch Wukong’s face. At first, it seemed like just another brief bout of pain, his expression tightening for a few extra seconds longer than before, but it passed all the same once that flicker died away. A pattern he had noticed throughout the night. He had only just briefly relaxed again when the monkey’s lips pulled back into a snarl with his fangs showing, his hand curling into a fist, digging into the sheets. Mk stiffened, practically held his breath, eyes wide and alert even after Monkey King had relaxed again. Every second after that felt thick and much too long as he waited to see if it’d happen again.
It did not. Instead, suddenly, Wukong writhed.
It happened so fast Mk found himself flinching back, freezing as his mentor started whimpering; the pain on his face didn’t look angry anymore, it was straight up full of fear as his body tensed, moved, shook. Hands shooting up to scrape against his head, pulling at his hair.
Those golden flickers turning blue.
Cold fear turned the boy’s blood into ice as he recognized the shade. Flashes of bone and pain and terror crossing his memories.
There was no telling what any of that had to do with the here and now, but hardly even mattered. All that did was the fact that it was happening at all and before he even registered it Mk’s body moved to take Wukong’s hand in a desperate attempt to try to stop him, to wake him up.
He only got out the first syllable of the king’s name before his back exploded with pain , hands gripping his neck and blocking his windpipe, choking on his own words before his whole body stopped like a deer in headlights. The fear in his body doubled.
Blood red eyes glowed in the darkness of the night, glaring straight through Mk as if there was no registration whatsoever of where he was or what he was doing–full of both rage and fear.
It took a minute for his brain to catch up, to realize that those eyes–those shaking hands squeezing at his throat, the deadly snarl promising only death as the room practically vibrated with the animalistic growl that came from deep in his chest, tail flicking wildly–belonged to none other than Sun Wukong.
Every part of Mk was panicking, hurt both physically and emotionally; he desperately tried to gasp for air, gripping hard onto the monkey’s wrists with his own shaking hands, pupils as small as pinpricks.
He didn’t know what was going on, and maybe neither did Wukong, but the boy tried not to pass out from the lack of oxygen as he called out to him, choking on the last of his breath, one last attempt at bringing Wukong back from wherever he had gone.
“ Monkey… King… ” Nothing but fear came out of his voice. It wasn’t good.
But it seemed to be enough.
The growling stopped immediately, those eyes clearing and looking straight at the boy, glow lessening. The grip on Mk’s neck loosened immediately. Wukong blinked, confused for a second with a hoarse, “Kid…?”
Horror dropped on him fast and hard; the next second Mk found himself on the ground, doubled over and gasping to fill his lungs again, hand cradling his now throbbing throat. Relief filled him, but that fear never fully dissipated as he looked up and watched as Wukong stumbled back and stared at his still shaking hands in that same pure, utter despair with those same, terrifying red eyes.
“H-how did…? I…” He looked up, entirely lost, and it broke Mk’s heart.
The kid tried to smile, despite everything that just happened, in an attempt to show he was at least mostly okay; but as he rose from the floor Wukong practically flinched a whole three steps back, his own fear strengthening, every piece of fur standing on end.
Mk stopped moving half way up, frozen and staring at his mentor. He couldn’t be any more heartbroken than now.
“I…I-It’s okay, Monkey King.” He tried, ever so softly, clearing his voice of any remaining roughness to it before, slowly, standing up again with a hand up, to try to placate him. “I’m okay. Really.”
Wukong only scoffed out an incredulous, sarcastic laugh. He had yet to stop shaking. “Oh, are you now??” His grin was unnecessarily wide, entirely hysterical, and completely fake. “Because, from where I’m standing and what I just saw, I’m pretty sure I was only seconds away from actually fucking killing you!!”
“It wasn’t your fault!” Mk immediately rebutted, trying to play off the flinch he just did. He’d surprisingly had never heard Monkey King use actual profanities before; for some reason his body thought that was shocking. “You were-... You were having a nightmare, or a dream o-or something , you weren’t yourself. And, I’m not dead, in fact nothing’s broken, so I really am fine!”
It sounded almost desperate by the end of it, but he didn’t really blame himself for that–especially not with the way Wukong shook his head and started to back away, tail curling and that feral snarl of his lips never leaving. Then out of nowhere his head whipped to the mirror on the left wall of the room, freezing, face falling entirely. Mk realized quickly that he was looking at his own reflection when self-hatred came and went in those eyes. When the shaking of his hands only worsened.
He was losing him. After everything they had been through he was losing him. He tried the desperate call again, barely above a whisper. “Monkey King please .”
The awful heartbreak in his voice had the Monkey King flinch, his head whipping back to his successor. In that second, Mk saw every one of his emotions; fear, sorrow, guilt, rage, despair, regret.
Every step away afterwards broke another piece of Mk’s heart. Some sort of finality hardened in the Sage’s eyes as he moved away, as if he had made some sort of mental decision as he inched closer and closer to the bed.
Towards the window.
When he spoke, it was just as hoarse, full of pure, true pain. “... I’m sorry, Mk. I’m really, truly sorry.”
Wukong turned to jump on the bed, reaching to open the window. He was going to leave. Without him.
Forever .
Rage burst from within.
“ Go now and you will regret it for the rest of your life . ”
Monkey King froze.
He did not turn around. There was another shock of blue but he did not even react. Simply stayed frozen under the awful, heavy tension in the air.
Under the might of Mk’s rage.
Both of the boy’s fists were clenched and shaking. Tears burned in his eyes, but there was a golden glow to his body; barely there but it was enough to fill the room with power. Maybe even beyond.
Mk’s tolerance had reached its limit. Snapping in half the second Monkey King turned his back on him, breaking the dam he had unconsciously built in an attempt to contain it. Yet, it was all pouring out now, centered on the one who was the reason for it all.
“Run away.” The fuming boy spat, venom dripping from every word. “Run as far as you want, and it will follow you. Just like everything else does. It will follow– I’ll come with it. Because guess what . Running away from your own problems doesn’t ever work. ”
Wukong flinched again. Shoulders hiked up to his ears. It did nothing to deter the boy. He had promised Mei he’d give the immortal monkey a piece of his mind.
And he was gonna hear every part of it.
Mk brought out the staff from his ear, throwing it in between them, letting it clatter loudly to the floor between them to make a point. Pushing past the lump in his throat and the tears as he went on, sneering. “You must have forgotten that you were the one that made me your successor. You gave me the Staff, you gave me these powers and the chance to use them. What am I supposed to do with them once you decide to disappear from my life ??”
“... Kid- ” Monkey King tried hoarsely, but all it did was have the boy stomp his foot down hard , a powerful wave of golden light passing through, purely fueled by his own emotions.
Here was where he yelled, where the tears fell. His hurt so pungent and wild there was nothing else he could do with it but this, hands flying into the air.“ I don’t care what your reasons are!! I don’t care if you’ve convinced yourself that this is the best for me! Because, A: You’ll never be able to forget me; I know you haven’t with anyone or any thing else you've already lost and B: who the heck are you to decide what’s best for me anyway ?! ” Using his arm to try to wipe the tears away did nothing. But the glow slowly dissipated, as did the weight in the room, and Mk went from angry to hurt and sorrowful. “You’re more than just my mentor, Monkey King. I want to help you, to be there for you; I want to care and worry about you because you’re my friend –that’s something that friends do. ” His voice quivered just as his bottom lip did. Asking the question he had feared the answer to this whole time. “Do you not want to be mine ?”
It hit as hard as he hoped it would. Wukong’s head practically fell off his shoulders, his body going slack. A hand went to cover his face and Mk only partly wondered why he shuttered.
“ It’s not like that. ” Was his awfully hoarse, whispered response. Full of so much desperate longing that it proved everything he needed it to.
Yet the boy still found himself basically begging. On the verge of collapsing to his knees and sobbing his heart out. Every word was a struggle. “Then don’t run away. Don’t leave me here to deal with this alone. Stop hiding from us. Right now you need me as much as I need you, but if you go, if you jump out that window right here, right now, I–” Mk’s voice cracked. He forced the words out anyway, taking a deep, shuddering breath. “I will never forgive you .”
He let those words hang in the thick silence between them for a moment. An ultimatum that was so very unfair yet he knew it to be true. Every single part of this hurt so, so much.
But it was hurting Wukong, too. Which meant that he did care so much more than he ever let on. Mk could tell with the way he not only stopped going for the window, but with the way his tail curled around his leg tight.
He decided to finish it, pulling the last blow in a thick, hoarse voice of his own.“... Don’t hurt me anymore. Don’t hurt yourself by doing this. Let us help. Please. ” He outstretched his hand. It didn’t matter if the Great Sage wasn’t looking; that wasn’t the point. “You don’t have to be alone anymore.”
Nothing happened for a solid two minutes at most. Mk could have only imagined how hard the Monkey King was fighting with himself internally. By the time he did speak, it was so quiet and so scared, and for the thousandth time that night (or morning, he really didn’t know) the kid’s heart broke, but his head finally turned in his student’s direction ever so slightly and it meant the world .
“... Your friends… Don’t they hate me?”
Mk shook his own vehemently; Mei’s words from earlier rebounded in his mind over and over again, providing the strength of truth in his voice. “They don’t trust you, but that doesn’t mean they hate you, Monkey King. We just… Need to work on that, and that starts with not lying about everything. Trust is one of those things that takes time, but…” He offered just the smallest of smiles. A small sliver of hope that the immortal could hold on to. “We’ll get there, if you’re willing. I know we will.”
It was as if the very room itself was holding its breath in anticipation, waiting to see what would happen next. Mk kept his hand out the entire time, steady and ready.
The next second he found himself wound tight in Wukong’s arms, being held right against his mentor’s chest as his tail wrapped around his wrist in almost a death grip. But none of that mattered.
“ ‘M sorry… ” He whispered against the boy’s hair. Digging his cheek into it.
Mk’s eyes filled with tears again, and he crushed Monkey King back just as fiercely, pressing his face into his chest as they both fell to the ground on their knees, his body shaking with both the weight of his emotions leaving and the quiet sobs he could only just barely keep in.
The pain and hurt from the past year at most felt so, so draining. But this was a start to things finally changing , and it was so utterly relieving that all he felt he could do with it was cry pitifully, gripping onto the fabric of Wukong’s shirt for as long as it lasted.
He didn’t know if he too, had started crying with the way the Great Sage’s body still continued to shake, but that could have been a product of exhaustion; either way, Mk tightened his hold on Wukong further, in an attempt to wordlessly comfort him as much as he could.
Then there was a sudden twitch of his body that had Monkey King gasp with pain, ripping himself away and leaving Mk blinking in confusion before he noticed the flicker of gold and blue power as he doubled over, hands gripping his biceps and that pained snarl returning. This time the boy didn't hesitate to set his hand on his shoulder until it was over, worried as his mentor panted lightly. He only knew it was over once his body untensed, his head rising slightly with a smirk that was nothing but exhaustion. Matching his glowing red eyes.
“.. Heh.” Even his laugh was weak. “Well. That's one way to end that. I guess.”
Mk did not bother to hide his own fear in the slightest. Yet he was only able to say his name, unsure on what to even start with that. “.. Monkey King.”
It made the monkey's smirk vanish entirely, replaced with a grimace. He didn’t look up from the floor, or so much as move. Looking as if he was fighting with himself, so the kid gave him the time he needed, simply sitting by in case he was needed with a careful eye. Watching the way his jaw worked until his mouth opened, hesitating before speaking.
“... I don’t know.. What's going on.” It looked like it physically hurt to admit it out loud with the way his grimace doubled. And even then Mk found himself blinking with surprise, earning a tired chuckle from the old monkey. “I know. Usually, something from my past is out to get me and I know how to deal with it. But this time…”
He removed his clawed hands from his arms, staring down at them. “This time. It's different. And I.. That's-..”
Wukong's mouth snapped shut and he turned away, as if ashamed of himself. But Mk knew exactly what he meant.
He squeezed his mentor's shoulder to get his attention, giving a supportive, sympathetic smile. “Scary. It scares you. I know.” He strengthened his smile when the Sage looked up back up at him, surprised. But that fear was evident in his eyes now, at least. “It's okay to be scared, Monkey King. Even if you are, like, equivalent to a god, and a bajillion years old, you're still allowed to be scared. I know I would be, if I were in your shoes.” He dropped his smile, in order to show his own fear. “In fact, I'm scared for you.”
This, for whatever reason, had Monkey King's expression fall and his shoulders tense again. “Mk-”
“Don't say I have to be, because I am anyway, and there's nothing you or I can do to change that.” He immediately interrupted with a stern look, holding it for as long as it took for the other to look away in defeat. He let it go, but kept his tone firm. “But. At the very least, I know that as long as we stick together, we'll be able to figure it out. Just like always. It may not be right now since it's like, who even knows how late and I know we're both exhausted, but…” Mk took his hand off Wukong’s shoulder, holding it out with that determined, hopeful smile. “We will figure it out. Together. Okay?”
There was no “right?” at the end, because he was leaving absolutely no room whatsoever for any kind of doubt, or any room for his teacher to back out from this. Because Mk was not going to let him suffer with this pain any longer than he already had, and certainly not by himself.
And, from the way Wukong's tight expression softened–not with warmth, but not entirely sad, either–he must have seen it. Still, his smile may have been small, but it was at least the most real one Mk had ever gotten out of him. Enough to fill every brim of his body with giddy determination, despite the way his body yearned for bed.
Either way, his hand finally taking Mk's in a careful grip, the half-real exasperated sigh he gave, was all a step in the right direction. “.. Alright.” He nodded, tired but willing. “I'll.. I'll at least try. But I'm not perfect, bud.”
“I don't expect you to be.” Was the kid's immediate, true response as he squeezed their hands in a final confirmation. Monkey King squeezing back before pulling away made him grin. “And neither will the others. For now, trying is enough. That's all we ask.”
Monkey King shook his head, still exasperated, but with a fond smile now. “Right. Of course.” With that, he pushed himself up to his feet, then uttered a sudden, “ Woah ” and Mk found himself scrambling to catch him before he fell to the floor. Watching him blink blearily before wincing. “Oh. Wow . The world's spinnin’.”
Mk immediately frowned. “Yeah. I'm not letting you even try going back to Flower Fruit Mountain on your own, especially not right now. You're sleeping here.”
It was obvious that the King did not like the idea based on his expression alone with the added way his body tensed, but he either didn't have the strength to argue, or the will to. Or knew he wouldn't have won because this was not a choice. Still, he turned away with a glower, reluctant but cooperative. “Ugh, fine. But I'm not taking your bed. The floor is fine.”
Here was where he wished he had at least an air mattress or extra bedding somewhere in his apartment, because the idea of having the Monkey King, of all people, sleep on the floor of all things, felt insulting, even to him. “Really? I don't mind, honestly, you can-”
“I've slept in worse spots before.” Wukong interrupted just a bit too quickly, refusing to look at Mk, though his body grew heavier and heavier by every sentence. “Just… Please , bud..”
“.. Alright.” Mk relented. Mostly because he hated making him stand for much longer. He helped him back to the floor, as close to his own bed as possible, just in case, making sure the monkey actually laid down (much to said monkey's very obvious chagrin) before going to bed himself.
He'd admit that being able to actually climb into his own bed felt wonderful , after such a long night, and he really hoped Pigsy didn't expect him to work tomorrow with everything going on now, he felt dead on his feet and his pillow felt like heaven . Even still, as his eyes closed, his thoughts were on his mentor, listening to the sound of shuffling next to him until, within thirty seconds, soft snores wafted through the air.
Finding himself drifting off not too soon after, murmuring, “G'night, Monkey King..”
With that, he was out. Completely dead to the world, even as an orange tail curled around his wrist that hung from the edge.