Chapter Text
For the first time in a long time, a cold wind blew across Flower Fruit Mountain in the middle of summer, with the sun shining in all its splendor.
The warmth of the sun did not reach Liu Er's bones, perhaps his soul was detached from his body at some point as he did not even feel his feet touching the ground, or maybe it was just his heart shattered by the terrible words his king had just uttered.
"Will you leave, just now?" he questioned in a thread of a voice, unable to believe such barbarity, pleading that his eccentric 6 ears for once in his life had heard incorrectly.
But if that were the case his king shouldn't look so guilty.
"Yes..." It was the definitive answer that ended up shattering the white monkey's heart.
A lump formed in his throat so intense that not even vomiting his insides could expel it from his body, ice and numbness lodged in his extremities, he shivered with cold and yet, the cruel rays of the sun continued to deliver their brightness, without managing to warm or comfort him at all.
Almost as if they weren't there.
Just like his sun.
Somehow, the coldness warmed and transformed into anger, bubbled unpleasantly in his stomach, rising like bile up his throat, the tongue on the roof of his mouth felt heavy and the saliva thick, like the most disgusting and unpleasant poison he could have ever tasted.
"Aren't we enough for you, why do you always have to leave?" he hissed somehow, the words erupted like volcanic lava in the middle of an eruption, and now that it already exploded, there would be no way to stop it.
Monkey king wasn't stupid either, his precious Liu Er was always the quiet of the 2, his moonlight always sought to calm him down in the midst of his destructive outbursts, but Sun Wukong never even imagined that the situation could be the other way around, and certainly, the idea baffled and terrified him, not knowing what to do to calm his moon's anger.
"Please my moon, I don't want you to think of it that way, the jade emperor offered me this job, I can't turn it down now" The golden monkey tried to approach, but for every step he took in the direction of his partner, the 6-eared macaque backed up 3 more.
"Work? Your work is here, on the mountain, with your subjects, your people, the court of the sun needs you, we will be left very vulnerable without you here!" the white furred monkey scolded, his tail lashed the earth beneath his feet, the sound was painful, his claws buried in the palms of his hands, staining his precious white hands with blood.
Sun Wukong, noticing such an action tried to gently grab his wrists to persuade him to stop hurting himself, but Liu Er Mihou was too out of it at this point to even allow him to touch it, hissing at the other. The monkey king sighed and moved his hands away, the last thing he wanted was to further provoke the rage of his moon.
"They will be able to take care of themselves just fine without me, I have trained them to protect this place while I am gone, besides, I will not be gone forever, I will come and visit them daily, I promise."
Such a promise should have reassured him, but oh holy gods, he could no longer believe in his king's promises, he followed him blindly since he brought him to this mountain, where he created bonds and made this place his home, if his sun declared that the sky was red and the sea violet he would have believed him without complaint, as his faithful and most devoted follower, but this statement was so naive that not even his heart clouded with love could believe it, his king should stop making those kinds of promises, somehow he always ends up breaking them.
This time would be no different.
"That's not the damn point! So what if you came to visit us!? A day in the heavenly realm is a year on earth, even if you come every day, how the hell do you think I'll feel about it seeing you just once a year? What if you don't come? What if you forget? Do you expect me to stand here watching and waiting like an idiot?!" Somehow he felt water on his face, but it's impossible, it can't rain on this mountain, and the clouds are far from bringing a storm, it was only when a sob burst from his lips that he realized his own bitter tears, with that new resolution the rage only continued to grow, he just wanted to lash out, he couldn't keep silent any longer, not anymore, not when he's about to lose his only light "I'm not a fucking immortal, I'm only eternal, I have nothing to offer you more than what I've given you so far, but even so, even if I had to wait for you all eternity, give you everything I have and more, I would do it without complaining if I knew it was worth it, but this..." He waved his bloody hands, pointing at the king and his new extravagant clothes given to him by the celestial kingdom "All this, all that you are sacrificing for those pompous shit gods is not worth it, do you think that by having a new position up there they will see you as an equal?! ... a stupid title won't change anything!" With each word he took a step forward, the tears fell non-stop but despite the sobs and gasps between sentences, the words just kept pouring out.
Like an endless river of pain.
The king watched him dumbfounded, the words hurt for there might be some truth in them, but annoyance and indignation also settled in a part of his heart, how could his Mango even think that he would forget him and his home? Maybe on his other trips he had been gone for some time, but there wasn't a single day when he hadn't thought of his precious moonshine and how much he missed him.
"I don't like what you are implying Mihou, I will not forget about you, even working for the emperor, my heart will always be here, with the mountain, the other monkeys, with you, my other half, I am doing this for us, to give our subjects a good life, I will be able to give you everything you deserve and we will be immortal together" Now just a couple of inches away, Monkey king tried to wrap his arms around his partner to give him comfort, it broke his heart to see him so distressed.
"What's the use of being an immortal if I can't be by your side?" After all that outburst, the 6-eared monkey's energies drained and he let himself be embraced by his husband, his voice so broken it seemed his throat was torn, if he thought about it, maybe he did, but he couldn't think about that now, not when the arms of the love of his life wrapped around him so gently it only prompted him to break down from grief "I don't need anything heaven has to offer, I just want to be here, with you, please, my sun, don't go..." He clung slowly but firmly to Wukong's clothes, afraid that they would slip through his fingers like sand.
Sun Wukong hated himself for causing his moon so much sadness, the guilt was eating him alive, but he wasn't going to take it back, this was the right decision, if he didn't know that his beloved Liu Er would forgive him sooner or later as on so many other occasions he really would have broken his heart, it will be worth it, he said to himself, when his Mango finally gets all that he deserves as his worthy queen abalone by gods and mortals as it should be he will take the rest of his immortality to dry these tears, he promised himself.
"I'm sorry moonlight, I'll make it up to you, I promise, but I really must go now" Wukong murmured softly, kissing the crown of his husband's head devotedly, moving down his cheeks, his chin and ending on his lips, trying (and probably failing) that this farewell would soothe both their hearts.
But something after that kiss felt different, perhaps it was the way Liu Er's shoulders slump defeatedly at his sides, the eerily quiet breathing or the lack of sparkle in his beautiful yellow eyes.
Sun Wukong was proud as the sun and stubborn as stone so he would never admit out loud that he ever made a mistake, yet just now he felt as if he had made the worst blunder of his life, and that's saying a lot considering his tarnished record.
"Alright" Murmured soft and calm the white monkey, slowly moving away from those warm arms that made him feel so safe and calm, he took a couple of steps away, staring at monkey king, then he looked at the sky behind him, in a few moments it will be nothing but a distant trail, finally he looked down at his own red scarf, the one he has taken care of so devotedly, the first gift his king gave him, the one with which their friendship started.
Gently and slowly, as if in a trance, he shed the scarf and tied it around his husband's shoulders like a cape, smoothing the folds neatly until it was perfect.
The king looked puzzled at his companion, it was rare enough to see the queen without his scarf, but the fact that he was completely shedding it chilled the golden monkey's blood.
"This was the first gift you gave me, it was when we first met remember?, long before we were lovers, I've had it with me and cared for it ever since, if you take it now you'll remember me daily up there..." He took a slow and leisurely breath, giving himself courage for what he was about to say "However, you will also take with you my most prized possession, I can't stop you from leaving, but I can make you take with you everything that reminds me of you" He was about to take off his precious moonstone wedding ring, that jewel that rested on the ring finger of his left hand, that hand that his king loved to kiss so much, with a new resolution in mind, he let it rest there "The only reminder of you that I need is this ring, to remember that even though you are not here I will still be the queen of this mountain, because now it is also my home and I wish to protect our subjects."
"Mango, what the hell are you talking about?" the golden monkey asked completely horrified, the new cloak on his shoulders felt heavier.
"If you dare to leave this mountain now, I will stop loving you and you will lose me forever" He declared with determination in his eyes.
...
...
...
"What?"
"I have a role to play here, while you go hobnobbing with those nasty gods I'll stay here to guard the mountain, but I don't plan to wait for you forever, you've always told me I should start thinking about my own welfare before the rest, well, well now I'm doing it, do you think it makes me happy to see you go and resign myself to waiting for who knows how long? Just begging someone up there so that for a moment you'll remember us? " He paused for a moment as he felt he was losing his composure, so he took a breath to calm down and continue speaking "I am the queen of Flower Fruit Mountain, YOU gave me this position and I am going to perform it even if I have to do it by myself, I am not going to mourn your abandonment forever, so yes, that's the way it is, if you leave, all this between us ends right here" Even he didn't finish understanding where that wave of courage appeared from to say all that, but he is not going to take it back now, the ultimatum was done.
Sun Wukong was in a cold sweat.
...
"You can't be serious..."
"Try me."
The king was so frustrated, his moon couldn't be doing this to him.
"You're being irrational, you're my husband, I'm doing this for us, for our home!, shouldn't you support me in this?!" Finally the king's own temper snapped, driven mad by the very thought of losing his queen's love.
Liu Er folded his arms, completely immovable of his decision.
"I am supporting you, if we part ways you will no longer have to return and you can serve the jade emperor as you wish, you can live the life you have sacrificed so much for."
"I don't want it to be this way!"
"It's my last word, Sun Wukong."
Liu Er always spoke to him with respect and devotion, hearing him say his name in that distant way instead of "MY king" or "MY sun" loaded with love made him panic.
Monkey king could not waste any more time, it was already getting dark and he had to go to the heavenly realm, but he could not leave the mountain with his moon in that state, he felt between a rock and a hard place, there was no way this would end well.
He would have to choose.
Damn it, he didn't want to.
His only easy way out was to run away like a coward.
"Listen to me very well, this conversation is not over, right now I am not abandoning you or this mountain, I will come back tomorrow and we will talk all this over properly, I don't intend to leave things like this" With that said Sun Wukong threw himself into his cloud and flew off in the direction of the sunset, without looking back.
Without gazing into those tear-filled eyes of the lover he left behind.
Oh, had he known what would happen next, he wouldn't have left Flower Fruit Mountain that day for anything in the world...