Work Text:
Monkey king paced around the cave, it was dim, the only light being from Red Son's head. He had been doing this for the past 20 minutes and as the ringing in his ears picked up little by little, so did the pacing.
"Kid, are you sure I can't just break is out of here?" He said a little too quickly, his voice beginning to crack here and there.
"The cave is unstable as it is, we're lucky the rocks feel the way they did otherwise we would all be buried" Red Son's voice answered instead.
"My offspring is correct simian, just sit down" Demon Bull King suggested.
"Yeah, we just need to stay put until Pigsy and the others come back with help" MK agreed, taking a seat on the cool dirt next to the demon bull.
That made the monkey pace harder, he could just feel his heart picking up in speed and it was nauseating, he felt hot as it was and it wasn't even because of Red Son's fire.
The cave in they were stuck in was small, DBK had to sit on the floor lest he want his horns to jumble around and shift the rocks above them.
How did this happen you may ask?
A stray demon intent on attacking the city, that's how.
The demon had been in its way to cause havoc when they happen to stumble upon the four at the base of the mountain. MK and Wukong had been there for training purposes, Red Son wanted to spar with the delivery boy because he needed a break from his inventions and his father came along because he wanted to make sure the simian didn't try anything.
Totally not because he wanted to see his sworn little brother again after the spider queen fiasco.
Blows were exchanged between both parties, MK landed the last hit that did the demon in and as a last hope to save themselves they swung hard and threw all of them into the base of the mountain. Wukong got the brunt of the hit, being in the front of the others and taking it for MK which caused him to hit the rocks above them causing the small avalanche. The last thing the king saw was the ground coming at his face after he felt something sharp hit the back of his head.
When he woke up the others were sitting in a circle, as soon as his vision stopped swirling and he realized they were trapped he began his pacing.
His hands found themselves in his hair, tugging lightly to give himself something to focus on.
It wasnt really working in his opinion.
Unbeknownst to him, MK sat next to DBK and gave him a pointed glance towards the pacing monkey.
Mountain. Trapped the bull mouthed silently.
MKs eyes went wide at the realization and he looked back to the meltdown the monkey was slowly descending into.
He forgot about his mentor being trapped for 500 years, he supposed it was easy to over look given how unbothered the guy seems about everything.
"We need to calm him down, or distract him somehow" the bull whispered to the 2 boys.
MK doubted he'd be able to distract him with his phone or anything really. They just needed to ground him, coax him into sitting down and trying to take deep breaths. He sighed softly to himself and walked up to his mentor.
"Hey Wukong" he approached with a calm voice, this didn't seem like a time for titles. He watched him pull on his hair, each pull more rough than the last.
He gently took the monkeys white knuckle hand away from his hair with a soft tsk.
The king didn't even look at him at first, as if lost in his own world. He rubbed small circles into the back of his hand, he felt the tremors in the monkeys smaller hands and hear the shuddery breaths from his nose.
As if finally registering the physical contact his mentor looked down at his hand and followed the foreign arm up to his face. It was pretty much blank but MK could see the tears building up, the fear in his unsteady golden eyes.
Pigsy had helped him through his own panic attacks too many times to not know how to help someone else so with that he went through the motions.
He gently led Wukong back to sit near the other 2 demons. He looked the king over and knelt down in front of him, MK carefully untied his red cape from around his neck and set it aside to help him breath, he undid his golden cufflinks around his wrists and let his shirt sleeves flow freely.
DBK got what he was doing and began to work his Phoenix feathers from his hair, setting it with his cape and the 2 worked together to loosen the wrap around his waist and take his chest plate off of his shoulders.
Once they were done and the monkey had time to process his loosened clothes he seemed to calm down slightly or at the very least he seemed to the breath a little better.
While MK folded up monkey kings cape and neatly arrange his other normal accessories, Red Son scooted closer and held out his hands to the simian, warming his skin enough to chase the chill of the cave away.
When Wukong didn't take the offer the flame demon gently took his cold tremor ridden hands in his and let the king soak in the warmth, rubbing circles into the back of Wukong's hands as he did so.
MK leaned over to the demon bull.
"Hey Mr. Bull King, how come you're not acting all claustrophobic like Monkey king?" He asked quietly.
The Bull sighed and looked at his anxious little brother with something akin to sympathy before he shook it off and gave the boy a stern look.
"Because I'm not bothered by such a trivial things like small spaces" he grunted, voice filled with pride.
He couldn't tell him it was starting to bug him too, that the only reason he's been keeping it under wraps was because it wasn't as bad for him as it was Wukong.
The Bull didn't have mountain guardians forcing molten copper down his throat nor was he ever truly alone in his imprisonment. He had a city built around him over time. He could hear the people hustling about, feel them beneath him in the subways, hell, if he tried hard enough he could hear a couple snippets of commentary when a big ball game happened.
But for Wukong....it was completely silent.
No one around, no sound or vibrations, his only company being the worms and underground bugs trying to eat him and the force feeding of molten copper as he was forced to lay there and be numb to it all.
That isolation...the numbness of your own limbs...the deafening silence, by all accounts you would think you were dead were it not for your own heartbeat ringing in your ears. He was quite surprised the monkey hadn't gone completely mad by the time he was freed.
---
"Little brother I need you to look at me, match my breathing" The giant bull instructed in a surprisingly soft voice.
He was currently knelt down next to his sworn younger brother, the monkey himself was a frantic mess even as he tried to match DBK's breathing as he watched his chest rise and fall.
"I'm..trying" the monkey just about wheezed.
It didn't take long for the panic to hit him again, this time trying to charge at the boulders that trapped them. MK would have stepped in but DBK beat him to it and just about tackled him to the ground.
The king screeched and kicked but the Bull held out enough to rub his much bigger hands up and down his arms to try and ground him, speaking to him softly.
"How's he doing?" MK asked as he made his round back to them.
" Not great, but he's..managing"
"We need to get him out of here before he buries us" Red Son chimed with a serious face, even though he was making little sparks in Wukong's line of sight, trying to draw his attention away and distract him.
"I managed to get a message out to Pigsy, he's getting help so we just have to hold out" MK responded.
---
Soon any of their words were lost on the monkey, spiralling in his own memories from a much darker time.
"Let me out! Please!"
"I'VE LEARNED MY LESSON--"
"I'M SORRY!"
They echoed and echoed, screaming and sobbing all at once. All the while his body couldn't help but shake as if he were freezing yet he felt so nauseous and hot. He couldn't sit still, his pacing started again, his tail and fingers twitchy with anxiety and irritation.
His stomach was doing somersaults, he wanted to throw up.
He needed to scream.
Break through the fucking boulders.
Demolish this mountain.
The city on top be damned.
His feet felt like he was walking on pins and needles, he couldn't even feel his heart beating anymore.
He looked at his hands.
He needed to feel something.
Anything.
He eyed his arms, loose and free from his cufflinks and pulled at the hem of his left sleeve, gazing upon his bright fur.
He knew it was soft but he couldn't even feel it under his hand as he rubbed it across the limb, just a faint, electric buzz of sensation. He scratched at the skin under the fur and felt the brief tingling sensation of his nails.
He scratched harder.
It grazed his skin enough to break it, letting a couple tiny beads of his own blood meet his nails.
It..hurt...
He scratched his arm again, harder this time and relished the grit of pain that accompanied.
He scratched again, and again, and again.
His nerves were lighting up one after another, but he couldn't stop!
Then his skin started to go numb again, his skin starting to stitch itself back together.
His breath hitched, his ears rung with a deafening tone as he dug his claws further in, more frantic and desperate, letting his blood drip onto the ground in the process.
Then someone grabbed his wrist.
And like a fog lifting he was brought back, the ringing in his ears stopping. He looked up to see MK, the kid was looking at him with horror and concern, his breathing irregular just like his own.
He watched his successor turn his head to call to the others but he heard no sound come out, the ringing was back and it drowned out everything else.
He was numb again.
Absent mindedly he tried to tug his hand away, he didn't want the rest of them to see his moment of weakness but MK's hand held firm around his wrist. His brain felt disconnected from his body, he couldn't put as much strength into his pulling as he wanted. He imagined it looked like a kitten trying pull away from a dog's mouth.
A pathetic display.
He just watched in a sort of morbid fascination as Red Son joined the concerned party and poured some water over his arm, where did he pull that from?
Then MK began to wrap the wound with a red ribbon looking bandage, wait was that his headband?
He watched DBK in front of him, he was saying something to him but there were no words to be heard. He watched him wave something big and purple in front of him, but his only response was to stare passively past him.
Why couldn't he focus?
He felt his eyes sting, everything just felt wrong.
His stomach was doing flips and his vision tunneled as he looked up at MK from the ground.
When did he sit down?
He watched his successor put a hand to his cheek but he didn't even feel it, only the sensation of something wet being wiped from his cheek. His vision was..watery and his cheek felt cold from where it smeared.
When did he start crying?
He reached his own numb hand up and touched his wet cheek, seeing the shimmer of tears on his fingertips.
Why was he crying?
He needs to stop.
He placed his nails against his cheek, dragging his nails down and feeling them scratch deep in his skin.
He only got half way down his cheek before a hand stopped him, pulling his away from his face. He tried to pull away from it but another hand touched his cheek, applying pressure to the deep scratches.
Why couldn't they understand?
He wasn't supposed to cry.
He was the great sage! He was supposed to be strong for everyone else so they know they're safe!
He attempted to squirm out of the hold but he only found himself being held tighter. He heaved a breath, his heart was back again but this time he could feel it skipping beats.
He could hear frantic voices behind him but they were too muffled for him to make anything out. Arms tightly wrapped around him, not letting him move an inch.
He couldn't move! He couldn't move!
HE WON'T BE TRAPPED AGAIN!
He felt his eyes prick again, they burned and blurred and he couldn't see! He just squirmed and writhed under the hold as best he could, his skin prickled with pins and needles as the arms wrapped around him picked him up.
Suddenly he felt the right side of his face alight with an intense heat, like being frozen and burned at once.
The pressure wrapped around him loosened, not crushing this time and instead was cushioned, it..didn't hurt like before.
Then he heard a steady thumping sound.
Ba-dum..ba-dum..ba-dum
It was..soothing...
He blinked a couple times, only to keep them halfway open. He didn't know how long he listened to it but he found his own heart matching the beat, soon he found the rest of his body following suit. Eventually, it became a lull and he felt himself sinking into the steady beat.
It felt...nice.
---
Just as MK finished wrapping his arm, Wukong seemed to have lost some fight, now only trying to pull away every so often. DBK looked down at the monkey, his eyes were still unfocused but was now crying silently.
Even though they fought against each other and he was sealed away by the monkey, they were once thick as thieves. He was there for his son's birth, he helped him seal his son's powers away for his own good and in return the Bull was there for the burning of his mountain, helped him bury his people with the respect they deserved and was there to help him strategize his attack plans with his generals.
When Wukong started to scratch his cheek where the tears were flowing he put himself into action this time, he grabbed his much smaller hand and took it away from his bleeding cheek.
This managed to get a rise out of the monkey as if realizing he couldn't move either arm and tried to pull away. He doesn't let him break free out of the fear that it would just make the smaller king spiral further.
He sighed quietly as he brought the crying monkey to his chest, placing his head right where his heart was. He let go of the others hands, instead bringing his arms to wrap around them in a hug.
He watched the king slowly come back from..wherever he went, and he sunk into his gentle hold, seemingly falling asleep.
MK came up around him, checking on his mentor.
"Probably for the better little thief, give his body time to calm down" the Bull told quietly.
MK was about to reply when a voice cut through the rock.
"MK!? RED BOY?!" a voice called.
"Mei? ! " MK yelled back.
"Dragon girl!"
" Hey are you guys ok in there? " a deeper and gruff voice asked.
"We're fine! Just get us out of here! " Red Son answered this time.
"Just sit tight guys! This might take a minute or 2" Sandy's voice shouted.
---
Wukong woke up to the sounds of the forest.
He cracked open his eyes and instead of finding it dark like before he was greeted by the Orange and yellows of the sunset. He felt something on his arm moving and turned his head to see a pair of hands wrapping his left arm in a bandage.
Wukong followed the arm to find it was his successor, looking dirty and tired but focused on what he was doing. His fingers twitched and caught MK's attention, looking down at his face and a small smile spread across his lips.
" Hey~" MK greeted.
"..hey" the king croaked, his voice sounded rough as if he had been screaming all night. " What happened? "
MK looked confused.
"You don't..remember?" He asked.
"I remember we got trapped in a rock slide but everything after that is...fuzzy" he admitted.
Wukong turned his head to the other side, taking in his surroundings and found that it was just the 2 of them in a small clearing.
"Where are DBK and Red Son?" He asked.
" Oh they're just in the other side of the tree line with everyone else. I figured it would be better if you woke up in an open space instead of people hovering over you"
"..yeah..how did we get out?"
" After you passed out--"
"I passed out?"
"Yeah, then the others came shortly after and dug us out"
"Did I?...get weird in there? Like did I say anything?" Wukong asked without looking MK in the eye.
"Not really, you just kind of..shut down, you wouldn't respond to anything we said and were only semi-brought out of it when when DBK held you to his chest. And even then, when you were calm enough you pretty much konked out for the rest of it" he explained.
"And now that you're awake I'm gonna go get Sandy. He wants to talk to you about what happened in there" he said as stood up.
Monkey king made a noise to stop him and quickly moved to stand up but his legs gave out from under him, he landed in a frog sit with his hand gripping MK's jacket.
The delivery boy turned his head, worried black eyes met wobbly gold.
"Heh heh, oops, case of the old jelly legs" the king tried to play off with a rather shaky voice.
"Wukong are you ok?"
"Yeah, yeah-uh, C-Can we just..stay here for a little bit? Please? "
MK felt the tremor in the monkeys hand, whether it was left over from his massive panic attack or because he was holding onto him so tightly he wasn't sure but his mentors eyes looked so pleading and desperate.
MK's brows furrowed with worry.
"Sure, we can stay for a bit longer" he answered quietly and moved to push his mentor back into laying down and laid next to him.
The 2 watched the sky get darker, the stars just starting to peek out from the orange light.
"Wukong, you know that it's ok to not be ok, right?" MK asked after a little while.
The king didn't answer.
"I get that you have a whole hyper independence thing going on but..you can always talk to me about stuff, even stuff you think is mundane or unimportant" The kid explained. "But even if you don't want to talk to me, I think you should talk to someone. Sandy's a licensed councillor, he's love to help you talk through some stuff" He rambled.
" Kid?.. "
"Yeah?" MK turned his head to look at his mentor who had a look that he had never seen on the monkeys face. It was old, not unlike the thousand yard stare he'd seen on old soldiers.
" I'm tired " He said. "I'm just...tired" he deflated, the weight of those words coming across clear as day.
MK waited for anything else he would say but when nothing came he reached out grabbed Wukong's hand, giving it a squeeze and rub small circles on the back of it in a way he hoped was comforting.
MK turned back towards the stary sky.
"That's ok" he said softly. "That's perfectly ok" he repeated even softer.
He didn't miss the small squeeze Wukong gave back in response.