Chapter Text
Sun Wukong was a thief. The legends say as much.
He saw something that he wanted; he would not hesitate to do anything to take it. Even if it never belonged to him in the first place.
Consequences were never a concern. There was one slight hiccup, sure, but he never needed to be concerned with repercussions since he defeated all the warriors in the celestial realm. He was the Monkey King. Great Sage Equal to Heaven. No one could deny him, not even fate.
That’s why on this cold rainy night, as he was leaping from rooftop to rooftop, he thought about what was missing.
He had plenty of treasure, a home that anyone would be jealous of, infinite magical powers, and immortality to boot. But there was still something he didn’t have. Something he needed.
He stopped above an apartment building, a moment to breathe and take in the city surroundings. It had grown so much from the tiny village that had sprung up here many, many years ago. Humans certainly did have a knack for rebuilding what was already there.
That was when he heard interesting sounds from inside the apartment below, so the Great Sage transformed into a bird to peek inside.
That’s when he saw a group of humans. They were sitting together as a family, celebrating the 100th day of their little one. They looked so happy all together like that, cooing and caring for their child.
He remembered how not so long ago, the Demon Bull King and his wife had their own child. A reincarnation of the son they lost some hundred years ago, the details behind said loss were never disclosed (as well as whether they were aware of Wukong’s involvement in the whole affair). He looked nearly the same with only a few changes from the first time around—a little wilder perhaps but much more intelligent than before.
He had also seen how they couldn’t bear to part with him for long; how could they after losing their child before?
DBK often told him that things would be different this time, that nothing would jeopardize the future of their clan ever again.
As he stood gazing through the window, he watched the father wipe away some gunk on his child’s face. That kind of familial love...
That was it. That’s what he was looking for. Something to nurture, to mold. Something that would last as long as he would. Besides, maybe it would be fun.
He just had to pick the right one.
…
Of all the open windows that night, one caught the Monkey King’s eye as he quietly made leaps and bounds through the city.
It was a shabby old apartment complex near the center of the city. A pretty scummy place if you asked anyone living there. On this muggy and rainy night, a single window on the top floor was open just a crack. A large enough gap for a beetle or butterfly to slip through.
Just big enough for Sun Wukong to enter the lonely room.
It was and rather plain-looking nursery styled room. Everything looked rather last minute, some character stickers thrown onto the walls , faded cracked furniture that looked like it was pulled from the attic of some hovel.
There was a table top calendar nearby on one of the dressers. When he flipped through it, in two months there was a date circled in red marker with 100 written above it.
Clearly this was a nursery, but where was the child ?
Footsteps approaching the room and a child crying in the hallway answered his question. He transformed into a butterfly and hid amongst the paper cut outs dangling above on the ratty looking mobile.
The woman that entered the room was most likely the child’s mother, holding a haphazardly swaddled baby in her arms, not caring if she was supporting its body or not. It’s tiny body wracked with sobs as it reached out for a warm touch, only to be dumped into an old crib that threatened to fall apart under their minuscule weight.
She then walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. Wukong fluttered to the door to hear the conversation outside the door.
“ Ugh he doesn’t stop crying! I fed him just now and he still won’t be quiet.”
“ Maybe it’s one of those thing where you gotta let them cry it out?”
“ Yeah. Maybe.”
“ Let’s just watch some TV and relax.”
Instead of tending to their child, they left the hallway and raised the volume of the TV. It was so loud that you could almost hear it through the door. The child’s cries went unanswered and poor thing was miserable.
Wukong looked into the crib to see the child. It was very small, if the calendar was correct they would be about four weeks old. Poor thing looked so weak.
Perfect.
He resumed his true form, gently taking the child from the crib. The child stopped crying almost immediately. Winding down to small sniffles and whines.
Their hair was a wild mess of brown locks, and their big bright shining eyes seemed to lock onto Wukong. The child gave a small smile as they flailed their arms up towards his face.
“ Shh Shh. There there little one. We will be leaving now.” He gently whispered as he stepped closer and closer to the window.
Not that the child could understand, but they quieted down again. A big smile plastered across their face.
It was a miracle the baby didn’t make a single sound as they left. Perhaps it was a sign that they were meant to be a family. Wukong carefully untied his cape and tucked the child close to his body before closing the window behind him.
In a few minutes his parents would walk into the room to check on their sleeping child, only to find the room empty. Everything would be exactly where they left it, only their child would be missing.
Their frantic cries would be heard throughout the neighborhood. They would be so distraught that no one would remember the window had once been slightly ajar, or how there had been one too many butterflies in the mobile when they put him to bed. Little details often slipped through the cracks when a child went missing.
By the time police would arrive the two were long gone. Already back home in the safety of Flower Fruit Mountain , tucked away behind the secret waterfall, where they belonged.
The child already seemed much happier away from their birth parents. They couldn’t stop smiling and even giggled a little.
“There now. Isn’t that much better my little one?” He held the child close as he carried him into his house. It was as simple as that.
…
The child that Wukong ‘rescued’ was a boy, he named him Xiaotian but more often then not liked to call him by his nickname.
During the first month of the child’s disappearance he kept him mostly at home in the mountains, where he comforted the little one as they got used to one another.He couldn’t risk anyone possibly recognizing him and trying to take him away.
Once the hope of finding the child alive died out, he started to take his son with him on his occasional excursions into the city.
Wukong always made sure Xiaotian had his headband on when he was in public. It would push up his hair and make him just a little less recognizable. For added insurance however, to make absolutely sure, he would hide Xiaotian’s face in the crook of his neck when they walked passed anyone who was looking too closely.
When he was older, Wukong would consider using glamor on him like he often did to assume a human appearance among the humans, for now this would be just fine.
The fear of discovery passed on over time. Even if there was a chance there was nothing anyone could do.
Sun Wukong. was a thief. If he wanted something he would take it. If anyone tried to take what was his he would fight to the very bitter end to protect it.
Even if it wasn’t his it begin with.