Chapter Text
It was a calm night out in the city, people were heading home after work, shops were closing, just your average night..
For most people that is.
In the more secluded areas of the city, was the dark haired monkey known as the six eared Macaque, who was a bit preoccupied with fighting a demon that appeared out of nowhere and attacked him. Though they weren't proving to be much trouble for him, if anything it was the opposite really, with Macaque being way more than what the demon bargained for..
"Aw come on! You can do better than that!"
Macaque taunted as he blocked the demon's sword with his staff, holding them back with ease. The demon growled and jumped back, before going into attack once again. The monkey rushed towards them, but just when it looked like they might clash again, Macaque sweeped his feet underneath the demons, knocking them off balance before hitting them with his staff, sending them flying until they hit a wall.
The demon slid down the wall and dropped their sword, falling against the ground like a rag doll. They groaned as they slowly tried to find the strength to get back up on their feet, grabbing their weapon and using it as a cane. It was clear to the monkey that this wasn’t a fair fight, they hadn’t been fighting for too long and the demon was already exhausted.
"You tired already? We were just getting started though." The simian remarks with a grin as he approaches the collapsed demon, ready to end this whole charade, but just as he was close enough, the demon quickly spun around, smashing a glass bottle against Macaque's face, the contents inside spilling all over him, some of it getting inside his mouth.
"What the hell?!"
Macaque stepped back a bit and placed a hand against the wound, feeling blood already start to come out of it. He looks over at where the demon was, this time very pissed off, only to find that nobody was there. The monkey grit his teeth..
"Running away after hitting me huh..?" He clenched his fists, "Like you're getting away that easily..!" Just as Macaque was about to head off to find his assailant, he started to feel very dizzy..he stumbles around, barely able to keep his balance, finally resting against a wall to help support himself.
"What..is this..?"
Macaque mutters, watching as his vision and surroundings begin to blur, he glances over at the broken bottle on the ground that the demon had hit him with. Whatever was inside, it was leaving Macaque incapable of fighting for the time being, he'd just have to find the demon and teach him a lesson later.
"I need to get out of here.."
The monkey presses a hand on the wall and summons a portal, sinking into it and leaving the scene..
…
Tang was quietly walking down the fairly empty sidewalk, a plastic bag with some food inside of it in hand. Normally the man wouldn't be out so late, but unfortunately he didn't have anything to eat back at his apartment and Pigsy had already closed his shop around this time so Tang was just going to have to make himself something. While he wasn't exactly a master chef like Pigsy, Tang was capable of making his own meals that were at least pretty decent.
The man yawned as he continued on his way home, after he got some food in his system he was heading straight for bed and getting a good night's sleep..just as he was thinking this through, a loud crashing sound came from a nearby alleyway, startling Tang and making him nearly drop his stuff.
"What the..?!" The scholar says as he looks in the direction of the noise, seeing that it came from an alleyway. Tang walked over to the passageway nervously, clutching the bag in his hands tightly, as if that'd do much help..
"Uh…Hello?"
Tang called out once he was close, and waited patiently for a response, but there was none, "Was I just hearing things..?" The man pondered, stepping into the alleyway and looking around carefully, searching for any possible causes of the sound, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. As far as Tang could tell anyway, it was pretty dark in the alleyway save for a single street light faintly lighting the way up…
"Hmm…" Tang glanced around one last time before turning to leave, when he heard something, groaning. Tang turned back around, and that's when he saw it, it was hard to see since the light wasn't hitting it, but there was someone down there. And they were walking over to Tang. "U-Uh..are you okay?" Tang asked, but yet again, got no response
"Do you need any help?" Still no answer.
Okay. Something was definitely wrong here. And Tang wasn't going to stick around and find out what. He quickly began to leave, but stopped when he heard the stranger call out to him.
"Tang…"
Tang recognized that voice, "Macaque?" Tang looked back and sure enough, now standing beneath the street light, was the dark haired monkey himself, though he didn't look so good. He was just barely standing up on his own two feet and was..bleeding?!
"Oh my God is that blood?!" Tang cried out before dropping the bag and dashing over to the simian
"Macaque what happened?! Are you okay?"
The man asked, but Macaque did not answer, he just…stared at him. "Uh..Macaque? You okay there? You're staring at me.." Tang looked the monkey in the eye when he asked this, and Macaque just stayed silent for a moment before he started to collapse.
"Macaque!" Tang quickly moved and caught the injured monkey before he could hit the ground, but wow he was either a lot heavier than he looked, or Tang was just that weak because he could barely hold Macaque up in his arms.
"Macaque what's wrong?! Say something!" Tang begs the simian, but he doesn't respond or even move for a moment until he suddenly grabs Tang by his waist and looks up at him, and Tang notices something for a split second. Something not right. It may have just been his imagination, but he could've sworn Macaque's eyes were red when he looked at him…? "Macaque…?" Tang mutters.
Macaque just kept quiet as he looked at the human, before finally, he smiled and…hugged him? "M-Macaque?! What are you..?" Tang began to ask, but stopped when he heard the monkey say something he never could've expected to come out of his mouth.
"Dear God you're more beautiful than even those in the Celestial realm could hope to be…"
…
Huh?
…
Huh???
Tang just looked down at Macaque and the monkey was looking back up at him with a loving gaze and a big smile on his face. “M-Macaque! Uh! Are you doing okay?! You’re acting kind of weird!“ Tang asked rather quickly, only for the monkey to sigh and rest his head on the nervous human’s shoulder, “I’m okay whenever I’m with you…” he answers as he nuzzles into Tangs neck.
What felt like hours passed by and Tang still had no idea what to do, Macaque was acting strange and was hurt, did he get hit too hard on his head or something? Should Tang just push him away and make a run for it? He probably wouldn’t get very far if the monkey chased after him, not to mention he was still bleeding, Tang couldn’t just leave him like this.
…Tang sighed, he knew what he had to do.
“Hey Macaque?” Tang says with a nervous smile, “Yes Plum?” Oh God he’s giving him nicknames now. “Uh..let’s go to my place so I can help you with that wound of yours..” the human suggests, praying internally that the monkey would go along with this.
Thankfully his prayers were answered as Macaque nodded, rather quickly for that matter, “I’ll go anywhere with you Tang..” he says into Tangs ear before letting go of him, “G-Good to know..” Tang stammers before he gently grabbed the monkeys hand and started leading him out of the alleyway, not seeing how this action made Macaques cheeks turn redder than his cape.
After a bit of walking, the two of them finally made it to Tangs apartment and were standing outside the front door, Tang let go of Macaque’s hand and slipped his hand into his pocket, pulling out his keys and after a second, unlocked the door and opened it. Tang stepped inside after Macaque and turned on the lights, shutting the door behind him and dropping the bag he picked up before they left the alleyway by the door.
“Okay you go sit down in the living room, I gotta call someone real quick."
Tang grabbed a nearby rag off of a counter and handed it over to Macaque, “Use this to clean off the blood for right now.” Macaque did as instructed and took the rag from Tang and pressed it against the wound, then headed down to the living room. Once that was settled, Tang whipped out his cell phone and dialed Pigsys number. He nervously listened to the ringing.
“Cmon Pigsy..pick up already..” Tang quietly begged, and after a moment, he heard a beep, followed by the sound of his good friend's voice.
“Tang? What are you doing calling me this late…?” The pig answers, clearly having been woken up by Tang calling him.
“Hi Pigsy! Uh..I kinda have a bit of a problem that I really need some help with!” Tang explains, trying to keep himself sounding as calm as possible.
“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” Pigsy asks with a yawn.
“Macaque is in my apartment right now.”
…
”Macaque is what?” Pigsy asks after a second.
“He’s in my apartment.” Tang repeats,
“WHAT THE HELL IS HE DOING IN YOUR APARTMENT?!”
Tang quickly held the phone away from his ear when Pigsy yelled at him, “I found him in an alleyway when I was walking home and he was hurt and I couldn’t just leave him there and…!!” Tang paused as it slowly dawned on him what he was gonna have to explain to Pigsy.
“And what…?” Pigsy begins to say.
Tang sighed, and continued, “I think he might’ve fallen in love with me…”
“He what?” Pigsy asks, not believing what he just heard.
“Well when I found him he just started hugging me out of nowhere and saying I was beautiful and that he’d follow me anywhere and just, please help me!” Tang quickly explained, that calm facade he had dropping completely.
“Okay okay! Calm down tang, I’ll be there as soon as possible, just, give me a bit okay. I gotta call the others..”
Tang smiled, “Thank you Pigsy!”
The pig demon sighed. “Don’t thank me yet..” after saying that, he hung up.
Tang put his phone back into his pocket and took a deep breath for a moment, then headed off to the living room, there he found Macaque sitting on the couch, rubbing blood off of himself with the rag. “You feeling okay?” Tang asked, catching the monkey's attention.
“Yeah..the bleeding stopped already so I was just getting the blood off..“ Macaque explains.
“That’s good..let me go get the first aid kit so we can patch that wound up..” Tang went off to the bathroom and after a few seconds of searching, found the first aid kit and went back to the living room with it. He sat down next to Macaque and opened up the little case, revealing an assortment of medical supplies inside.
Tang got a gauze from the kit and dipped some disinfectant onto it, before holding it at Macaque's wound, “This might sting a bit..” He warned, before pressing the wet gauze against the large cut, quickly moving it back when Macaque flinched though.
“S-Sorry! I should’ve been more-“
“It’s okay Tang.” Macaque raised up his hand a bit and smiled at the human reassuringly after cutting him off. “Just keep doing what you’re doing..” He instructed.
Tang was hesitant to continue though, he’d rather not do something that’ll upset the money demon, but he didn’t really have a choice at the moment, so..he continued on cleaning up the injury.
Some time had passed and Tang was just finishing up wrapping the wound, when he heard knocking on the door. It must be Pigsy and the others,
“Coming!” Tang called out from the living room, he got up from the couch and walked over to the front door. Before he opened it up however, Tang took a deep breath to help calm his nerves, this was definitely gonna be fun to explain to everyone else..
Tang grabbed the door knob and turned it, opening the door and seeing Pigsy, MK, Mei and Sandy on the other side, all of them looking either tired, confused, worried or a mix of the three. “H-Hi guys..” Tang greeted.
“Where’s Macaque at?” Pigsy asked bluntly, cutting right to the chase as usual. “He’s in the living room..” Tang answered, moving out of the way so the four of them could come inside.
“So…is it true that Macaque hugged you?” Mei asks with a grin, surprising the scholar.
“Pigsy! What exactly did you tell them?!” Tang snaps at the demon, who just raised his hands in defense.
“Hey don't get mad, I just told them what you told me!” Tang was about to retort that statement, but stopped himself. He couldn't get mad at his friend after he agreed to help him out like this.
"Anyway, yes Mei, he did hug me, but that's not important right now"! Tang answers, noticing Mei's smile getting even bigger.
The gang walks into the living room, finding Macaque just chilling out on the couch, though he seemed a bit surprised to see that there were more people here now. "Uh..Hi Macaque! Good to see you?" MK awkwardly greets with a small wave, noticing the wrapping around the monkey's head.
"Good to see you too bud." Macaque nonchalantly says back.
MK looked over at Tang who looked more nervous than anything, "What exactly happened to him, Tang?" MK whispers to the man who just shrugged in response.
"Ask him.." he gestures towards Macaque.
MK looks back over at Macaque, who is just sitting there quietly and watching them all, but MK noticed he was keeping a close eye on someone in particular. He looked in the direction of whoever Macaque was staring at and just as he thought, he was looking at Tang. Is it really possible what Pigsy told him over the phone was true? That Macaque might’ve actually fallen for Tang?
“So…” Sandy began to say, “How did you even find Macaque, Tang?” The large man asks, catching everyone’s attention
“O-Oh..well, I was walking home from the store when I heard a loud noise from nearby and when I went to go see what might have caused it, I found him…” Tang explains.
“Do you know what he was even doing there?” Pigsy questions, crossing his arms against his chest. Tang simply shook his head, “No.” The gang then looks over at the ebony monkey, who was still being uncharacteristically quiet. Looks like they’d just have to ask the man himself what he was doing there..
“Uh Macaque?” Tang says, catching the monkey's attention.
“What is it, Tang?”
“What were you doing in that alleyway anyway?”
Macaque paused when Tang asked that question, he pondered his response for a moment before he finally answered, “I was trying to get somewhere that I could deal with this at.” He points over to the now bandaged up wound on his head.
“And how exactly did you get that in the first place?” Pigsy questions.
“I was fighting someone, and when I went to finish them off, they hit me with something and ran off.” Macaque explains.
“Do you remember who attacked you?”
Macaque shook his head at MK’s question, “No, they were covered up so I couldn’t get a good look at them.”
The gang looked at one another, trying to decide on what to do now that they know what happened to Macaque, when Mei broke the silence, “Well…at least you have someone to make sure you actually go to bed instead of staying up studying.” Mei comments with that same grin from before, nudging Tang a bit with her elbow. Almost immediately, Tang's cheeks started to turn red.
“N-No! It’s not like that Mei!! It’s just- “
''I’d do anything to make sure you’re happy and healthy Tang…” Macaque says with a sigh.
…The room became dead quiet after the gang heard what Macaque had said. They just stared at the ebony monkey for a moment, noticing how lovingly he was gazing at Tang, then looked at the scholar, who was covering his red face in complete embarrassment.
“Tang?”
“Yes..?”
“You weren’t joking when you said Macaque fell in love with you, were you?”
“…No.”
MK took in a deep breath as he thought over what to do, “Oh boy..” he mumbled
“Okay..I’ll get monkey king to come by and see if he can figure out what’s going on with Macaque.”
Tan uncovered his face, “You should probably do that tomorrow, it’s late right now and I doubt we’ll get much done when we’re all tired..” The man suggested, but MK didn’t look too sure about that, “Are you sure that’s a good idea Tang?” The man simply nods in response, “I’ll be fine MK.”
MK was about to object, but stopped when Pigsy grabbed his shoulder, “Kid. Tang has a point. We’re all tired and we aren’t going to be able to do much if we stay up like this. We should just head back home and figure out what’s going on with Macaque tomorrow.”
MK looked at Pigsy, and sighed, “Okay. I’ll talk to monkey king about this tomorrow, let's get going for right now."
With everything settled now, the gang headed to the front door, Tang following after them to see them out, "Thanks for coming to help me guys, I really appreciate it." Tang says once the group was standing outside of his apartment.
"It's no problem Tang, just, try to be careful okay?" Pigsy tells his good friend, who smiled in response.
"Will do, you guys be careful on your way home now." Tang says, starting to shut the door after his friends turn to leave, but was stopped by Pigsy,
"And Tang. If he tries anything funny, let me know. I'll knock some sense into him." The Pig demon whispers, not wanting the others to hear that.
Tang's cheeks faintly flushed at that statement, but he nodded anyway, "Thanks Pigsy, goodnight.."
"Night Tang." And with that, Tang shut the door and walked back to the living room, where Macaque was waiting for him.
“Okay Macaque, you’re gonna have to spend the night with me, is that okay with you?” Tang questions. It was strange but did he see Macaque’s eyes widen a bit when he heard what Tang said?
“That’s fine with me Plum.” Again with the nickname…
Tang held himself back from sighing and gestured for Macaque to follow him, he led the monkey down to his bedroom, “You can sleep in my bed for tonight, I’ll sleep on the couch.” Tang suggests, not noticing how Macaque flinched at that.
“I’m gonna go ahead and get ready for bed, just give me a second okay?” Tang stepped into his room and shut the door behind him. After a minute had passed, Tang came back out, now dressed in his pajamas. There he saw Macaque, having his armor and such taken off. “Alright, I’m going to bed, night..” Tang says before the two of them passed by each other as they went to their respective areas.
Tang plopped himself down on the couch after turning the lights off and just..thought over how crazy tonight had become. Never in his life would he have expected that he’d be having a monkey demon staying at his place, especially not under these circumstances..
“I hope monkey king can fix this..” Tang thought as his eyes slowly shut and he drifted off into slumber…