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The moment his Light had burst in, tears rolling down his cheeks, Red had been worried.
Apparently, Qi Xiaotian had been helping Sun Wukong tidy up his treasure room. (Aka the hoarding room.) He had found a weird scroll, opened it, and then “Black goop took Wukong away!” Xiaotian’s hands were frantically in motion as he explained, his eyes welling up with tears.
Of course, everyone believed him. The last time Red had seen his Noodle Boy this freaked out was back during the Lady Bone Demon Time. They were still paying the therapy bills for that. So, Red immediately followed Xiaotian back to Flower Fruit Mountain.
Red couldn’t help but glance suspiciously around as Xiaotian led him and the others up to Sun Wukong’s cave. The jungle was healthy and green, the sky was blue, and he could hear birdsong hammering in the peaceful paradise. The peace of the mountain was eerie, however, especially there was no sign of “black goop.”
The only sign that something was wrong was in the monkeys. Most of the troop had gathered on the beach, nervously chattering and chirping. The moment Xiaotian had stepped foot on the beach, all of them had gathered around his husband. It had taken several minutes for Xiaotian to calm them down to allow them to pass.
Speaking of his husband, Xiaotian was the other sign something was wrong. He stared straight ahead as he gripped Red’s hand tight. His tail thrashed back and forth, occasionally smacking against Red’s knee. Not for the first time, Red was tempted just to scoop Xiaotian up and leave. There was no way this could be worth stressing his poor husband out.
But he couldn’t.
What he could do was gently squeeze Xiaotian’s hand as they entered what looked to be a dining hall. (Something about it niggled at his brain, as if he had seen it in a painting before, but it didn’t matter.) “Are you alright?” he asked quietly.
“What?” Xiaotian looked up. For a moment, his eyes were filled with unending pain. Then he blinked and grinned brightly. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine! We’ll just get Tang to seal up the scroll and get Wukong back and we’ll be home before the twins get home!” He looked away with a hum. “Maybe we should get takeout for dinner. What do you think?”
Red bit back a sigh. He did love his Noodle Boy, he really did, but he also hated when Xiaotian sealed away whatever he was thinking. He glanced back. Long Xiaojiao met his eyes and he nodded to Xiaotian, hopefully communicating what he was thinking.
She nodded back and then shrugged.
Great. She didn’t know.
Before Red could try again, Xiaotian came to a stop in front of a large set of doors. They were open with tracks rushing outside, suggesting Xiaotian’s mad scramble earlier. Xiaotian pulled his hand away to peek inside the room. Red joined him before, a second later, he felt Xiaojiao hop on his back to look.
The hoarding room did look a touch neater. Also empty of “black goo monsters.”
“Oh thank the gods!” Xiaotian grinned as he pulled away, looking around. “They must’ve retreated back into the scroll!” He gestured for the others to enter. The chef walked up and his Noodle Boy leaned on him. “Then we can get everything fixed and then everything will be back to normal!”
As he burst into laughter, high-pitched and slightly hysterical, Red met his father-in-law’s eyes. Pigsy glanced at Xiaotian and then him, communicating the same message he had done Xiaojiao: Is he okay?
Red could only shrug.
“Hey, what’s this?” the river demon said, making Xiaotian stop his strange laughter. He had knelt, scooping up what looked to be a blue and black scroll.
Xiaotian’s eyes went wide.
“Sandy, DON’T-”
The scroll unfurled.
Red barely had time to see the gold symbols before black goo began to leak out between the tiles. Sandy dropped the scroll with a yelp and backed away as the black goo continued to leak and leak…
Hang on.
Was that ink ?
Before Red could move to get a better look, figures began to rise from the murk.
The next few minutes were chaos.
Xiaotian yanked him away from the puddle and into the circle that was forming. Figures began to form. Red barely had time to see the figures of Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie, Sha Wujing, and Ao Lie before a sniffle made him blink. That sniffle sounded…familiar…
Xiaotian wheezed next to him. “Red,” he hissed. He nodded and Red followed his gaze.
His heart screeched to a stop.
“ I’m sorry Bàmā, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please don’t be angry! ”
The two figures of two children, even though it had been years since they were that small, made Red freeze. Eleven-year-old Peter stared at him with teary eyes while Xiaobo gripped his hand and stared at them. Red had the distinct feeling he was being glared at.
“ I’m sorry Bàmā, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please don’t be angry! ” Peter pleaded again. “ I don’t want you to hate me! ” Xiaotian made a choking
“Bad Bàmā! Bad Bàmā!” Xiaobo’s voice was small and reedy but still loud enough to echo in Red’s ears. “You hurt Gege! You hurt Gege!” The words repeated and repeated in his brain. He had hurt Peter, hadn’t he?
“Red-”
Peter’s wails of apology began to shift and change. “I don’t deserve this,” he said. “I don’t deserve this.” Despite the fact that this was a nightmare recreation of his son, Red was prone to agree. “I don’t deserve this!”
“Gege doesn’t deserve this!”
“I DON’T DESERVE THIS!”
“WE DON’T DESERVE THIS!”
“Red,” Xiaotian said, his voice sounding like it was underwater. “Red, I think they’re feeding off your bad memories-”
“ WE HATE YOU! ”
They hated him. They hated him. They hated-
Something wet wrapped around his ankles. Red gasped as realization struck. He glanced around. Pigsy’s horrified eyes met his as he too sank into the ink. But where was Xiaotian? “RED!” Red glanced over at the scream of his name.
Xiaotian’s horrified eyes stared at him-
And then-
“Bàmā?”
Red nearly jumped out of his skin at the voice at his elbow. Peter leaned back, eyes wide. “I got the tents all set up.” he said, sounding a tad nervous. “Are you okay? You’re crying.”
Was he?
Red reached up and touched his eye, feeling wetness meet his touch. But that didn’t make sense. Unless it was early tears of pride?
It had to be. Red and Peter would awaken the latter’s powers on this trip! And then Xiaotian would be so delighted when they got home! Red could imagine his Light’s bright grin of joy as Peter demonstrated whatever powers he had!
“I’m fine, Peter. Let’s get started.”
Qi Xiaotian wasn’t sure what he thought would happen when this day began.
Of course, it didn’t involve diving into a memory scroll to rescue his family. Thankfully, Azure Lion had been kind enough to help. (Even if he had seemingly been caught off-guard by the fact that he had kids with Red Son). And it was easy to find Tang!
As the gold haze disappeared, Xiaotian looked around. “Oh!” Recognition struck easily. He knew that mountain range and those dark evergreen forests! “I think we’re where Red is!”
“Oh, great!” Xiaojiao said, a grin forming as she looked around. She had never seen this place before Xiaotian was willing to bet she recognized the pictures. “This one’s gotta be easy!”
“How…” Tang wheezed as he stood up. “How do you figure?”
“Simple!” Xiaojiao gestured to him and Xiaotian felt his face heat up. “We got the person he loves most in the world right here! All he’s gotta do is walk up and bat his lashes-” She batted her lashes with a fake sauve expression. “And Red’s woken up! Boom!”
Tang sighed. “I think it’s more complicated than that, Xiaojiao.” He pushed his glasses up and began to launch into his Scholar Voice. “Depending on when we’ve landed, Red Son could still view Xiaotian as an enemy.” That was a good point. “Even worse, he could be Red Boy, back when he was a child.” An even better point!
But Xiaotian had learned and grown, enough that stuff like that refused to hold him back. “We don’t know until we see,” he said. “Stay here. I’ll take a look around!” Xiaojiao nodded and Tang was already sitting down. The Monkie Kid took a deep breath and headed up.
They had landed in one of the smaller hills that perfectly kept them out of sight from the main mountaintops. It was easy to find a path and Xiaotian began to march up.
…hm. Tang did have a point. It was really a matter of when.
Xiaotian felt his face flush. Hopefully, they didn’t land during one of the times he was here. The image of walking in on Red fucking himself only increased the heat in his face. Although, that did sound pretty sexy-
“Qi Xiaotian?”
A familiar voice made him freeze and whirl around. The minute he saw his face, Xiaotian felt a brow raise. “Nezha? What are you doing here?” He hadn’t seen his children’s protectors in a while, although he knew Nezha came around a few times to check in on Xiaobo. Why would he be here?
The lotus prince straightened as his brows furrowed together. “I came to discuss with your…mate,” he said, sounding like he preferred a different word. “About his treatment of Peter.”
His treatment of Peter?
“What…what do you mean?”
Nezha groaned. “I mean this stupid training course Red has set up for Peter,” he ground out. Xiaotian felt the heat in his face drain away as the pieces fell into place. Oh no. No, no, no- “Based on the look on your face, I suppose you didn’t know about this?” Nezha’s anger hadn’t softened, it looked like, but he looked less angry at him .
“No-” Xiaotian managed to rasp out. “I didn’t, I-” Before he could come up with an excuse, a flare of heat made him turn back.
Flames were dying down, paired with a furious echo of “YOU’RE NOT TRYING HARD ENOUGH!”
Shit, shit, shit.
Xiaotian didn’t have time for this. He sprinted up the mountain without a second of thought, feeling his shoes kick up dirt and rock. Above him, he caught a glimpse of pink and gold flashing across the sky. Nezha was going to reach there before him.
He didn’t know Nezha had known about…the trip. Red had told him that Nezha had given Peter another blessing, but Xiaotian had just assumed it was one of those rare times Nezha just felt like giving the twins gifts. Then he learned about the trip a year later.
Shit. Shit, how did he not realize?!
Red’s voice became loud in his ears.
“You really think you can show up here, in my territory where I am training my son , tell me to stop some mysterious ‘foolishness’, literally get in my way - seriously, literally - and then act as if I’m the one doing something wrong-”
“Red?”
“Red?”
Red froze.
Honestly, today had been the absolutely worst one of this week. First, once again, there was no sign of any powers despite their hardest. Next, Xiaotian and Xiaobo had called and Red had to swallow back his feelings to pretend everything was going fine. Then, Peter had nearly broken his arm during sparring. While he would’ve usually been consumed with all too familiar worry, Peter had broken into tears of fright. It wasn’t the first of many, many tears since Red had taken him up here and…
He had lost his temper and sent Peter to bed early. Then Nezha had slammed down and started yelling at him. Red, too tired to really yell back, had tried to walk away.
But…Nezha had kept pushing.
And now, Red’s ears were ringing with a voice that usually brought joy and light into his heart. Right now, however, all he could feel was cold dread. Nezha moved away and turned towards Peter’s sleeping bag. Red allowed it, his mind awash with shock.
What was his Light doing here? He was supposed to be home, with Xiaobo. Red had just talked to him! He was taking their son to watch that new Jack Spicer movie!
He turned.
Xiaotian stood there, staring at him with wide eyes. He was dressed in a yellow vintage outfit Red didn’t recognize and, if he had been in a better mood, would’ve found adorable. At the moment, however, he couldn’t think of that. Instead, his eyes were locked on his Light’s wide eyes, filled with a silent horror Red hadn’t seen in years and never focused on him.
Never on him.
“What are you doing here?” he croaked. “I thought…I thought you were at home…” Little details began to stick out at him.
The charred dirt and grass from where he had been unable to help a scream of fury and flames, aimed away from where Peter had been standing. The dirt on his clothes from where he had decided sparring was the best idea. The tear streaks on Peter’s cheeks.
All silent displays of his failure.
“...I…” His Light opened his mouth and then shut it, his eyes moving to where Nezha hovered over Peter. “...This is what that trip was like?”
Was like?
“I…” Red stepped forward, reaching for Xiaotian’s hand. His husband had begun to tremble, his eyes darting from thing to thing, never looking at him. “I- You really did say those things.” His hand reached forward and knotted into his hair as his eyes began to water. “You really said those things and I know you did, Peter talked about it in therapy but-”
“Light-”
“You hurt him!” The sadness in Xiaotian’s eyes disappeared and Red froze. In its place was a burning anger, one that Red had never seen before-
No. Wait.
“ And if you bothered to watch how much you say that, then you might notice your own son hate’s his true form, too! Which is made worse by the fact that he hasn’t learned how to hide it like you!”
That anger was familiar.
“I’m talking about Peter and that ‘bonding trip’ to your old training grounds last year!”
It had been focused on him, a mixture of protective rage and blind fury.
“‘Shit’? Really? Is that all you have to say for yourself?!”
It had only been once-
“You just let him see every day for a year how disappointed you were that he couldn’t do that for you?!”
But it had been enough.
“This isn’t real,” Red said, feeling the words taste true on his tongue as his mind began to race. The event was real, yes, but it had been years since it had happened. “...This isn’t real. This is just a bad dream.”
This was one of his worst nightmares.
Xiaotian, arriving at that bonding trip. Seeing his rage. Seeing full force how he’d hurt Peter. Seeing how much of a failure as a parent Red was. Red had often woken up in a cold sweat with the nightmare, racked with pain and guilt at his own actions.
The dream Xiaotian- how ironic, how a being who usually provided Red with sweet dreams was the source of this hellish nightmare- opened his mouth. His eyes were filled with concern. Red couldn’t hear it. He turned away, not sure what to do. He was stuck in the memory scroll. How could he get out?
Did he deserve to get out?
“No .”
Red looked up at the hiss as the sky darkened. Nezha and Peter rose together, their movements slow and unnatural, as black ink began to wash over them. Slowly, they merged and reformed, their combined figures making his stomach twist. The figure turned, glaring down at him. “ You don’t .”
He didn’t. He deserved this darkness.
Not even Xiaotian’s light could pierce it.
“You are an awful father,” the figure whispered, stalking closer. Red wanted to run but his feet stayed in place, frozen as death loomed closer and closer. “ Caring about yourself. Only treasuring what your love would see. ”
It reached for him.
“ You don’t deserve your children-”
A loud clang was the warning before a red staff slammed into the ink’s face. “That’s enough of that!” he faintly heard before a cool hand wrapped around his and suddenly, Red was moving again. There was an angry screech but his focus laid on that hand.
“You’re real?” he croaked out.
Xiaotian nodded, his eyes focused on the path ahead. “I’m real and I came to get you guys!”
Oh. He…he had.
Red had to say something to that, deal with the old guilt burning anew in his chest. “I’m-”
“Don’t.” The unusual harshness made Red flinch. Xiaotian winced himself, glancing at him as the figures of the scholar and Xiaojiao appeared, waving at them and encouraging them closer. “We’ll talk about it later when I’m less mad.”
Before Red could say a word, the scholar slammed down a familiar staff.
Gold overtook his vision.