Archive of Our Own

A crowd of children gathered on the pavement, shoes scraping against the surface as they chattered amongst themselves, only partly paying attention to their tour guide. The lady was tall, with an identification card hanging above her chest as if she had some high authority. Macaque glanced to her direction with narrowed eyes, even though he was too wiped out to see clearly. His vision began to blur again as he gripped the bottle in his hands and gritted his teeth, taking a swig.

He could admit, he wasn’t looking his best, his matted, unkempt fur complimented by the alcohol stains on his ugly floral robe with yellow accents. Paired with an equally unflattering pair of sweatpants which were the colour of vomit. And who could forget the lazy decades old socks with holes worn into them along with the hideous slippers. The guy looked old, sad and homeless. Like a drunken bag of bones that parents would turn their kids in the opposite direction of.

Macaque burped, holding onto the metal black bars that fenced the famous White House. A building he’d regretted not burning down when he’d had the chance. In the distance a nearby vendor advertised his t-shirts, earning a glare from the monkey. The vendor paused, quickly evacuating in the other direction in hopes the crazy drunk guy in a depressing beanie wouldn’t throw a glass bottle at him like he’d done a few days prior. 

After the vendor disappeared, in came the next group of school kids.. Eh, he’d guess around high school. He sighed. Those poor kids. In their prime, and being brainwashed by the corrupt system. Then there was the tall tour guide lady that always pissed him off, leading the children along and motioning to the White House he’d stationed in front of.

His ears flicked, honing in on what the simpleton had to say and preparing to hear the absolute ludicrous that was bound to spew from her bird-brained mouth. His tail flicked, hinting his annoyance.

“And this is the White House, also called the people’s house!” The lady exclaimed in a too-sweet voice, “Because in America, the government works for you!”

Macaque couldn’t believe his ears. This was the stuff they were teaching young’uns these days? Seriously? This was getting out of hand, the insanity mixed with sleep deprivation and too much to drink controlled whatever the fuck came rolling off his tongue next. Because before he knew it he’d turned around, eyes gleaming with immeasurable anger.

“Bull. Shit.” he yelled, taking the kids attention as they stared at him, wide-eyed. Some even wrinkled their noses in disgust at the sight of the washed up primate. 

He took a step forward, “Listen kids, everything they teach you in school is a lie.” his words slurred as he waved his bottle around. The kids gasped as the tour guide stared at him in horror.

“You want the truth? The world is controlled by–” He burped again, making wild expressions with his arms, “Shadowy elites, and shape-shifting lizard people!”

Macaque looked around, noticing that everyone’s attention was on him now as he continued his rampant speech. Ohh, they were in for it now! That’s right, he’d expose the truth to the world and nobody was going to stop him.

“Am I the only one who cares that the President is a damn robot?” Macaque strode forward, pulling a megaphone from his robe, “Wake up Sheeple!”

He shoved his bottle to the ground, ignoring how it smashed to pieces and sent glass flying across the pavement along with what remained of his beverage. “The evidence is right here.”

The monkey shoved a crumpled flyer into some poor kid’s face as he squirmed in discomfort.

“They’ve got snipers trained on me,” he pointed to the sky, hoping to prove a point, “For just trying to tell you the truth!”

And surely enough several red lasers aimed at his forehead, firing up. The snipers vanished as his speech was suddenly interrupted by a loud honking and screeching of tires. Bystanders that had bothered to listen to the drunken monkey all screamed and fled the scene, leaving Macaque standing cluelessly with his megaphone and countless flyers laying around him. He should probably clean the mess, but what the hell! Global warming isn’t real.

Still slightly confused, he called after the fleeing crowd, “Take a flyer for a friend!”

He abandoned the megaphone to the clutches of the weathered cement as he turned to the mysterious black car that pulled up in front of him. The passenger window rolled down, revealing a familiar face behind small rounded glasses, a dot on his forehead and a scar on his left cheek. His wild red hair was tied up messily, assuming that he’d been in a horrible rush to get here. 

Macaque grinned proudly, the smile being returned with an unamused frown and a raised eyebrow.

“Macaque, what the fuck?” Red Son growled. “Has retirement made you go completely insane?”

“What– No!” the monkey argued.

Red Son exhaled sharply, hair flaring up for a split second before grumbling to himself and leaning out the window, “Don’t listen to him kids, he gets his news from Facebook and Ambien.” he called out, hoping that his numb-skull of a ‘mentor’ didn’t say too much to ruin the company’s workflow.

The fire demon glowered at him, hands returning to the wheel, “Get in. I’m going to be late for work.”

Macaque entered the car without a second thought as Red Son immediately stepped on the pedal and sped off. With one elbow leaning out of his open window he looked over his shoulder and shouted, “Democracy is real!”

Before leaving the dumbfounded citizens in the dust.

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The dark furred monkey laid back in his seat with a sigh, folding his arms behind his head and resting his feet on the dashboard. He picked at his teeth with a grin, watching out of the corner of his eye as Red Son gripped the steering wheel tighter, sharp nails digging into the rubber. Clearly, he was trying not to lose his temper again and berate the monkey about shoving his paws where they weren’t wanted, but he managed to take some deep breaths and allow his hair to sizzle out. 

Instead he grinded his teeth together, forehead creasing as he forced a reassuring smile, “You’ve got to stop–”

“Hey, whaddya’ say we stop at that pizza place n’ pick up some slices, eh?” Macaque specifically chose to interrupt his lecture, side eyeing him and watching his shoulders stiffen angrily and his smile immediately drop like a stone.

The monkey’s ear twitched, hearing the demon let out a low growl.

“No, we’re not taking any detours.” His face seemed to light up suddenly, “Besides, I’m finally getting that promotion I’ve been working towards my entire career!”

Red Son seemed to get lost in the moment as his mind was plagued with imaginations of what the world would be like with him rightfully in charge of the company he was currently employed at. Cognito Inc.

His dreams were finally coming true, the dreams that introduced themselves when he was still only learning about Cognito Inc.’s existence at just eight years old! As Macaque took him on his first tour when he himself ran the entire company alongside.. An old friend of his. The current CEO, Sun Wukong. The name left a bitter taste on Macaque’s tongue. A taste he’d once drunkenly compared to a rotten onion left inside a dirty sock. Turns out he had actually consumed a rotten onion inside a dirty sock a few minutes prior, making the fire demon gag every time he’d recall the memory of hearing Macaque’s laughter while the stench of rotten onion socks lingered on his breath. It smelled awful.

Besides that, ever since he’d first set eyes on the building, he knew, and his gut knew just as well, that he wanted to be in control of the company some day. And as he’d vocalised these desires to Macaque, who ruffled his fluffy crimson hair and chuckled, assuring him that one day, he’d be able to make that dream come true.

But things have changed since then. Macaque got the boot, Wukong was put in charge, and Red Son was put in the position of a role the equivalent of an intern at age eighteen. In human years, that is. Now several years later, after slowly working his way up the ladder using his brains and questionably short temper, he’d finally made it. A single step below the tip-top of the pyramid.

He could practically already hear his co-workers cheering him on and offering an endless round of applause to commemorate the moment that would dent the course of history and alter the planet’s annual orbit around the sun.

Red Son snapped out of it when he suddenly swerved out of the way of an oncoming car, missing it by a hair as the other driver honked their horn and let out a chain of barbaric insults and remarks. The demon rolled his eyes and kept driving before raising his fist in the air with a confident smile.

“Just imagine, me ruling the company with an iron fist,” he spoke with pride, “I even programmed an iron fist!”

He pulled out a metallic arm that gave an enthusiastic thumbs up. Macaque rolled his eyes and yawned, taking out a small bottle concealed inside his robe which he had stored as a backup drink. Macaque tuned out his nonsensical rambling about how great of a CEO he’d be as they pulled up at the gates of Cognito Inc. 

They were granted immediate access, the gatekeeper straining his facial muscles to form a slight smile and waving at Red Son who did nothing but offer a half-assed excuse of a wave in return. The two pulled into their assigned parking space, the gears, as well as the tires, in the vehicle screeching to a stop. They glanced up as a robotic female voice announced over the loudspeakers from inside the polished building. 

“Welcome to Cognito Inc.!”

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“Good morning Dr. Hai-er.” A holographic version of their usual receptionist greeted him as he stormed past, Macaque lumbering after him with his tail tucked between his legs like a miserable puppy.

Red Son sighed as he entered one of the few elevators, the complex ID scanner scanning his eyes and approving the identification. Somehow he’d managed to make some small-talk, as he adjusted his white lab coat that was burnt at the edges of his sleeves, noticing that he hadn’t properly buttoned up his dark purple slacks in the rush to collect Macaque from the White House tour before he initiated the next World War. Ah, at least he’d remembered to wear his steel-toed boots for the handy work he’d be planning to get up to today. 

He shoved his hands into his pockets, rocking back and forth on his heels and watching the level indicator above the door slowly decrease, “So, Macaque, if you’re going to be living with me we need to set some ground rules.”

Macaque groaned, throwing his head back like he was about to throw a tantrum.

“Number one. No more coffee for breakfast. You and caffeine don’t mix well.” 

The fire demon watched with a sly grin as the monkey sputtered in outrage.

“You can’t tell people that the government isn’t real,” he began to list things off using his fingers while the elevator creaked in the background, bringing them low underground, “You can’t threaten the CEO’s life either, he could have you put in.. that place.”

Macaque paused, shuddering, “Oh come on. You’re being totally irrational!”

“ I’m being–!?” Red Son was interrupted by the elevator doors pulling open with a ding, revealing the place he was proud to call home at this point, the Cognito Inc. headquarters. He glanced up at a hanging poster, Sun Wukong’s face plastered upon it above some corny work quote. One day his face would represent the most powerful company known to man. He could feel the world at his fingertips—

“Would you quit it? I can practically see your tail wagging.” Macaque teased from behind him.

Red Son’s hair lit aflame, cheeks burning, “I do not have a–!”

“Good morning Red Son.” A lizard creature walked by holding a clipboard. That was his telltale sign that some people were watching the two squabble, so Red Son immediately straightened himself out, acting all professional and like he wasn’t just about to strangle the life out of his unfortunate roommate. The two of them stepped out of the elevator as the fire demon accepted various greetings from his coworkers. He supposed he was hot-topic as of now, especially with his high achievements and well known smarts. Of course countless simpletons would be bowing at his feet, being blessed by his mere presence. Okay maybe he was a bit full of himself, but he deserved it. All of his year’s hard work was finally paying off.

As they walked the open halls of the lavishly decorated office building, alien creatures contained in oversized glass cylinders rolled past them, being pushed along by some maintenance workers. One of them waved a tentacle at the red head, Red Son nervously returning the wave. He chose to ignore Macaque’s childish behaviour as he made faces at the alien creatures thinking Red Son couldn’t see him. Scientists whizzed by on hover crafts, wind tangling with the demon’s coat and making it flap all over the place like a flag on a pole. The place was getting wilder by the day as the company continued to benefit from his flawless inventions.

He looked almost smug as he glanced to his left, watching some bald guys sporting the same white lab coat messing with his recent creation, holographic projectors. The sweet little devices served the normal purpose of any phone, except it didn’t need a screen, a holographic substitute for a screen would instead appear in front of them with a push of a button. Something that others had commented was ‘straight out of those sci-fi movies!’

Really, Cognito Inc. was amazing. The company monitored absolutely everything, and he couldn’t imagine himself working anywhere else. Every conspiracy theory in the books, from something as small as bigfoot to something as huge as the Bermuda Triangle, Cognito Inc. was responsible. Mishaps, major weather events, earthquakes, the melting of the icebergs in the Atlantic. All created by Cognito Inc. to distract the normies who didn’t know any better. No one had even figured out that the moon landing was fake! There’s a whole studio out the back with the moon landing set still up and collecting dust. And oh boy, don’t get him started on how they were paid to invent climate change that one time. Oh, and he bet they’d never figure out all of their favourite singers and boy bands were secretly man-eating reptiles either! It was fun to think about.

Every single little thing that happens around the world, Cognito Inc. is always responsible.

Speaking of reptiles, Red Son kept his stride, grimacing when his gaze fixed on the distasteful display of a shape-shifting lizard person transforming into his original form while talking with his phone pressed to his ear. He swore he’d never get used to seeing that, as he shuddered and averted his eyes.

Macaque rolled his eyes when he realised that the scientist was still listing off things he wasn’t allowed to do. He was considering tearing his fingers clean off just so he’d shut up, but then he’d be left with a huge mess to clean up. Urgh.

Red Son glanced through the glass windows of the weather department room, eyes widening at the chaos inside. Another invention of his, the “Rain Maker” was having a freak out, spitting out storm clouds that rained all over the office and soaking the carpets. 

“Rules, rules, rules. You’re such a downer, learn to live a little!” Macaque remarked as they ducked underneath a charging plasma device that allowed anyone to travel through space and time whenever they pleased. They’d barely missed the light blue blast of light by less than a millimetre as they continued their banter like they hadn’t just almost ruined the entire project. The lab workers assigned to the project stood to the side with their clipboards, staring at them like they’d just committed several war crimes against their country.

The fire demon stopped him as they reached his own laboratory of study and invention manufactuing, turning to Macaque with an intimidating glare, “And one more thing.”

Macaque raised an eyebrow, unphased by Red Son’s terrifying demeanour.

“You cannot tell people that we are replacing the president with a robot, got it?”

Oh, right. The project that would seal his fate of officially becoming the CEO.

The doors opened revealing said project, an identical replica to America’s current president, except expressionless and made of metal and bits of wire. It was convincing, Macaque admitted silently to himself, creepy but impressive nonetheless. Not wanting to feed the demon’s bursting ego, he scoffed, arms crossed across his chest.

“Shit, I’m late.” Red Son checked his wrist watch. He panicked, catching the attention of a random employee walking down the hallway, “Hey you. Take this old guy home. If he gives you any trouble, just tase him,” he pulled out a taser from his pocket and handed it to him.

“Hey– What!?” Macaque protested as he was ushered towards the exit. Red Son smiled, waving goodbye. “How dare you! I used to run this damn hellhole!” the monkey yelled, pointing to a nearby faded picture on the wall that displayed him and Sun Wukong standing side by side, proud grins plastered on their faces as they displayed their honorary CEO badges.

“And soon, I will be running it.” Red Son said to himself, watching them leave. Macaque growled, muttering under his breath as he was led away by some random worker nobody even knew the name of. How is he ever going to adjust to living with that douche.

Red Son stood with his hands on his hips, happily admiring his creation. With its metallic face polished to perfection, and its cloudy grey eyes that border-lined on blue, the machine looked strikingly identical to the president, Red Son even sculpted its face shape correctly. Those moronic citizens would never be able to tell the difference. Hell, he’d even managed to get his hands on some hair that matched perfectly. When asked how he’d gotten the hair, he very hastily changed the topic. He stared at the robo-president. “Robotus” he called it. And it was his one way ticket to ruling the company. Now all that remained was some final testing and slight tweaks, and it would be ready.

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The main conference room was relatively silent, having no lights on but the triangle shaped ceiling light that hung above, offering a sombre glow, matching the triangle shape of the table below it. The walls buzzed with surveillance footage of events occurring all around the world, of specific locations, to news channels to even popular celebrities twitter profiles.

Around the table, Sandy and Tang shuffled decks of cards, dealing them across the table while Tang simultaneously munched on a steaming bowl of noodles beside him. Wherever Tang was, it wasn’t likely you wouldn’t spot a bowl of noodles from his favourite noodle shop within arms length. 

Mei sat across from Pigsy, who was sitting silently staring off into the distance. Mei would find it creepy if she wasn’t mindlessly scrolling on her phone while picking at her nails with her vacant hand. The clock ticked, awaiting the arrival of their know-it-all leader of the team with his stupid flaming red hair. Dude was a suck up, and an annoyingly hard worker, oftentimes making the rest of them look bad in comparison. But like, he couldn’t blame his motive. Wanting to run the company and all. It sounded like a solid gig. And maybe sometimes he wasn’t all that bad to talk to. Even though she’s dragged the workaholic to tons of parties and get-togethers, only for Red Son to totally ruin them with his sour attitude and anti-social manners. He was the definition of ‘needing to loosen up’ despite what he tries to make them believe. It wouldn’t be too untrue to say that deep down, Mei kind of felt sorry for him. 

Mei sighed, finally looking up from her phone to glare at the closed door, waiting for something to spontaneously burst into the room and lighten the dull mood.

And her expectations were met, minus the lightening of moods part, A blur of white and red bursting through the heavy doors and clearing his throat. Red Son stood before them, clapping his hands together, “Alright, let’s get started.”

He paused, squinting and looking around before groaning and moving towards the light switch panel.

“Can we turn on the lights for once?” he complained, flipping the switches.

The lights illuminated the room immediately, revealing the filthy table, covered in rubbish, food, drink spills, empty noodle bowls and a lot of magazines. Pointedly belonging entirely to Mei and her well known magazine collection at home which had somehow spread to her work life. The four of them hissed like cats, acting like the uv rays were burning their skin off.

“Turn them back off, man! My noodles are sensitive ,” Tang wrapped his arms around his precious bowl of noodles, protecting it from the light. It was then that Red Son also noticed he was wearing sunglasses instead of his usual prescription ones, but he knew it was probably wise not to ask any questions.

Instead he glared at the noodle-lover coldly, “Oh I’m sorry, Tang, are your noodles relevant to global security? We are running the world here, let’s try to take our jobs seriously.” he seethed, hair already smoking.

Mei coughed, accidentally inhaling the fumes and waving her hand to guide the smoke elsewhere, “Jeez, take a chill pill Red Boy.”

“I told you not to call me th–”

“Shh shhhshh,” she hushed him with her finger against his lips, appearing beside him with her other arm wrapped around his shoulder, “Take a deeeeeep breath.”

“I– GET OFF ME, PEASANT!” He yelled loud enough to rattle the entire building, the teasing gesture being enough to ignite his hair into a flame that almost licked the ceiling. Red Son shoved her away harshly, but the girl returned to her seat giggling like a schoolgirl. The fire demon huffed, dusting off his coat and coughing into his fist while his hair swiftly returned to its normal high ponytail. 

“Ahem, where were we.. Ah yes, as you may recall, the candidate that we backed in the final election won, to no one’s surprise. He stood in front of a wide screen, clicking a button from a small remote he’d taken out of his coat pocket and turning it on to reveal the real, and new, president of the United States of America, waving to the various cameras that surrounded him as he exited his private jet. 

Red Son’s smile faltered into an annoyed eye roll, “But he turned out to be too, er..” he trailed off, trying to pick a word that wasn’t as vulgar as the word he’d used beforehand, “..Dumb. To manipulate that is.”

Normally he’d be a lot more carefree with his word choices. But he was at work! He had to act professional, especially if he wanted to be a role model to his coworkers and new future interns. He can complain about the idiocy of mortals in his own time. This logic for some reason didn’t stop him from letting the odd swear slip into his vocabulary on occasion. 

“But thanks to my latest invention,” he clicked the button again, the screen flicking to an image of Red Son working on the robo-president, “Cognito Inc. will finally have a president we can control!”

Red Son grinned proudly, hands returning to his hips. He turned to stare at the image fondly.

“Ah, look at the gorgeously refined detailing. I’m a genius!” the demon shouted, fuelling his already enormous ego. The rest in the room groaned.

“Anyway, this is our biggest job yet. Get your shit together!” Red Son ordered his team as they stared back at him blankly, looking like they were about to doze off any second. Was this seriously not that big of a deal to them!? Of course not, they weren’t the ones about to receive the most important promotion of their lives, so obviously they wouldn’t give a single flying fuck about the project.

“You’re not the boss of us,” Pigsy muttered bitterly, while their team leader walked forward to stand at the tip of the triangle shaped meeting table, rubbing his hands together like some evil villain.

“Actually, as of 12pm today, I am literally going to be the boss of all of you,” Red grinned smugly, prompting another round of groaning from his team. 

“And I’m going to ban groaning,” he pointed to each of them, “No more group groaning.”

They all groaned again, this time ten times louder.

“That’s right. Get them all out of your system while you still can.” he chuckled, hands returning to his hips. They were all interrupted by the sound of the screen behind them buzzing to reveal none other than Sun Wukong, peering down at them from the comfort of his office chair. He looked different today, dressed in an overtly formal black suit and tie, his hair combed back for once in his life. He only dressed like that when something tremendously.. Important.. Was happening. 

“Red Son, I’d like to see you in my office.” Wukong said, smiling softly.

The fire demon cackled, picking up an earth-globe that sat contently on the table and hurling it across the room, ignoring how it collided with the wall and shattered completely, “Say hello to your new CEO, peasants! Hah!”

He continued to cackle as he slammed the door behind him, refusing to acknowledge that it was definitely a stupid thing to say, seeing as he left the room immediately afterwards.

Breaking the awkward silence that followed his departure, Sandy looked up from shuffling the playing cards, “Am I the only one with the feeling it ain’t what he thinks it is?”

“Nope,” Mei replied, popping the p.

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Red Son peered around the doorway, noticing that Sun Wukong was on the phone with someone he couldn’t recall, as the monkey was for some reason talking in a sweet tone while twirling the telephone cord around his finger. The fire demon cringed, waiting for his boss to wrap up.. Whatever was happening. Wukong glanced up, spotting Red Son standing by the door and gesturing for him to come in. He complied without hesitation, taking a seat in front of his desk eagerly. The desk that was surprisingly clean, which was unusual for Wukong as he always had scraps of food lying around. Red Son’s eye would twitch whenever he’d lay his eyes on the sight, but didn’t bother to acknowledge it.

Sun Wukong laughed on the phone, a hearty noise that boomed across the room and made the demon wince. While waiting he decided to look around the room, paying attention to various photos that hung on the walls. Photos he hadn’t been inside his boss’ office long enough to read into. Most were autographs of photos with Wukong standing next to famous celebrities and even legendary cryptids.

His eyes seemed to linger on a specific photo that was hidden on a far shelf, out of the light and blending within the shadows. He squinted, leaning forward slightly to make out the figures in the fading picture. The small gasp that escaped his lips was justified as he recognised one of the figures to be Sun Wukong, one arm wrapped around, and resting on, Macaque’s hip. Macaque’s arm was in return, slung over Wukong’s shoulder. They looked as if they were in their early twenties, their bright smiling faces full of youth. The two of them looked so close. What happened?

Red Son jolted when Wukong slammed the phone back into its holder. The scientist quickly assumed he’d concluded his strange little call and was ready to break the great news to him. The monkey spread his arms out towards him as he sat in his chair politely.

“Ah! There he is,” Wukong chirped happily, “Red Son, child prodigy, top of MIT at age 13!”

He folded his arms on his desk as he shot compliment after compliment his way. Red Son simply smiled sheepishly, averting his gaze in proliferating embarrassment.

“I don’t need to look at your eye bags to know you’ve been workin’ real hard!” Sun Wukong grinned.

“Thank you sir, I am prepared for them to get deeper.”

“Ever since.. Macaque had his crazy meltdown and you took over his responsibilities,” his former business partner’s name rolled off his tongue like poison, “productivity and team morale has skyrocketed..”

“Thank y–”

“Let me finish.” He barked, “..Into the toilet.”

Red Son’s smile deflated, a confused frown replacing it as he watched his boss pull out a thick manila folder of report forms. He opened it, licking his thumb and flicking through them.

“Look at these complaints..”

“Difficult, short tempered, constantly threatens to quote on quote ‘burn this place to the ground’, doesn’t make eye contact..” he began to list off the hundreds of complaints that had been filed in from countless Cognito employees. Wukong glanced up at him looking fairly unimpressed, “Uses the word ‘peasant’ a lot even though it’s literally 2020..”

Red Son scoffed, throwing his hands in the air, “Are you kidding me? I make eye contact. I make tons of eye contact!” his hair began to smoke. Sun Wukong looked at his hair that began to spark, slightly confused that out of everything he’d just listed, that was what he’d chosen to nitpick. 

“Short tempered..”

“I am NOT–” Red Son exploded, launching up from the seat with a finger pointed at his boss threateningly. He froze, sitting back down slowly and folding his hands in his lap, extinguishing his smoking hair. “I am not short tempered.”

“Uh-huh,” Wukong raised an eyebrow, “Never do that again. Anyway, look, I know you care about your work, but your intensity reaaaaally freaks people out.” he explained, making wild gestures with his hands.

Red Son stared at him blankly, recalling all the moments when he’d burst through doors without warning, yelling at the top of his lungs and reminding them to finish reports by their due deadlines. He’d scare everyone even further by turning full fire demon mode, hair and eyes turning into pure flames and all. And he definitely remembered how they’d all be screaming and running for their lives as he summoned fire balls in his palms and sent them hurling at his slacking coworkers. 

…Okay maybe he was a little intense. 

Doubt started to squeeze his insides as he frowned slightly, “Wukong.. I’m still getting the promotion, right?” his voice wavered, reflecting said doubt.

“I’ve worked my whole life for this job.”

“Oh no, no, no,” Sun Wukong waved his hands in front of him, “Don’t you worry. You’re smart and I like you, but your people skills… yeesh,” he grimaced. “Which is why I’ve brought in someone to co-lead the team!” 

Thunder cracked inside his mind, his limbs feeling heavy from pure dread. Wukong got up from his chair and walked around towards the middle of the room, Red Son slowly getting up to follow, still in disbelief. His outraged stare could burn a hole through his back as the monkey fiddled with a miniature diorama of a small town that was placed in the centre of his office. His tail flicked back and forth.

“E-Excuse me..? What do you mean co-lead?” Red Son mumbled out, devastation evident in his face and tone of voice.

Sun Wukong chuckled, turning to the door to his office where two men brought in a guy dressed in a black suit that almost matched Wukong’s save for the annoyingly bright red tie tucked above his white dress-shirt. Red Son’s jaw went slack, eyes trailing down the well built and sturdy physique of the man whom they’d seemingly kidnapped judging by the black bag tossed over his head. Eyes completing the subconscious exploration, they fixed on his rather unprofessional shoes. The guy wore equally black sneakers that looked worn out at the sides. What kind of sane person wears sneakers with a suit?

Red Son scowled, glancing back up at his concealed face. “Alright, you can take off the silly bag now that we’ve microchipped you,” Wukong chuckled, pulling off the bag for him. He wrapped an arm around his shoulder, his grin matching Red Son’s brand new ‘partner’s.

The fire demon scowled even deeper, seeing that it was just another stupid, migraine inducing mortal who probably managed to charm his way into the company. His hair was a dark chocolate brown, styled up into spiky mountains using an absurd amount of hair gel, a bang flopping above the left side of his face. And boy don’t get him started on the obnoxious bandana that hugged his forehead and seemed to match the colour of his tie perfectly. Red Son might just keel over and barf on the spot. 

The stranger stuck out his hand towards Red Son enthusiastically, “The name’s MK! Thrilled to be serving whoever gives me approval!” ‘MK’ announced.

The fire demon growled, glaring at his hand and refusing to have anything to do with this stranger, so much as offer him his own hand. The new guy was practically glowing with positivity, his eyes burning by just looking at his face. Not that he even wanted to look at his face. 

And even worse, he was most frustrated with himself. How pathetic was he, that he needed some sort of.. Some sort of babysitter that was supposed to stick by the miserable demon’s side while he miserably ruled over this stupid. Miserable. Company.

His dreams of becoming the sole CEO of Cognito Inc., crushed in a matter of minutes. Under the healed sneaker of the boy who stood before him, hand out and awkwardly waiting for Red Son to return the polite greeting, only making himself look like an utter fool even further. The moment they were out of Sun Wukong’s sight, he’d burn the mortal peasant to a crisp with no remorse. If he could ruin his life wearing a grin brighter than the sun, then surely it would be fair to.. Oh his hair was smoking.

Red Son snapped out of it, crossing his arms with a huff, still refusing to return the handshake.

The two didn’t seem to be phased at all, to the scientist’s dismay, as MK retracted his hand without a bother. Wukong turned and heaved a golfing bag onto his back, slapping a cap on his furry head, “Congratulations Red Son. You’re still getting your promotion,”

“And so is he!” he finger-gunned MK as he stood near the seething redhead, slipping out of the door and leaving the two by themselves. 

Awkward silence fell on them like heavy bricks, as MK stood in front of him, confused and unsure what he was even doing in this place. From what he could remember, he’d been working his normal shift at the noodle shop he worked at and delivering food to that monkey’s house when suddenly some guys in suits and sunglasses kidnapped him and put him in these clothes. He didn’t mind, honestly, they were quite comfortable. He turned to the fire demon who looked deep in thought as he chewed on his nails.

MK scratched the back of his neck, “So.. Red Son, was it?”

“Don’t talk to me.” Red Son snapped. 

The brunet clicked his mouth shut, instead blowing raspberries to fill the uncomfortable silence, which seemed to irritate the short-tempered demon even more than his annoying voice. Red Son’s hair began to smoke again, flickering and sparking as he paced back and forth, trying to weigh his options. What was he going to do, and more importantly, what was he going to do with him?

He looked up at the new recruit, noticing that he was staring at his hair.

“Does your hair always do that?” MK pointed, tilted his head to look at him from another angle. Red Son frowned, his forehead creasing.

“What?” he blurted out.

“Y’know.. That.” MK could tell he had no idea what he was talking about as Red Son continued to stare at him like he was delusional. He eventually sighed and tried to look up, spotting the few clouds of smoke that lumbered in the air.

Red Son scoffed loudly, “Of course it always does that, you nitwit. I’m a fire demon.”

God, mortals truly were pathetic. How could Sun Wukong ever think that this sorry excuse for a ‘CEO’ would ever have the ability to run the company as smoothly as Red Son would’ve been able to. The thought infuriated him

He quickly patted out his hair, though the edges still flickered a small amount. 

“You’re a fire demon?” MK exclaimed, eyes wide and sparkling with fascination as he moved closer to him. Red Son stepped backwards, not very keen on the fact that he’d already invaded his personal space. “That’s so cool! I’ve always wanted to be friends with a demon! Gee, I can already tell this job is gonna be swell–”

“I am NOT your friend.” Red Son yelled, “And whatever trick you’re trying to pull won’t work on me. You’ll find I’m not so easily swayed by a con-man’s manipulative charms like you have somehow managed to sway Wukong.”

The fire demon prodded a finger at his chest in a threatening manner, breaking said personal space boundaries himself. MK only smiled innocently, not batting an eye.

“Tell me, mortal, just what is your motive here at Cognito Inc.?” Red Son interrogated him, “There has to be a reason Sun Wukong paired me, this company’s greatest asset, with someone like you.”

MK blinked. “Is that what this place is called? Awesome.”

Red Son swore his brain nearly snapped in half and turned to mush. He sighed, dragging his hands down his face while muttering to himself. He turned his back on him, desperately trying to come up with a plan on what to do from this point onwards, and maybe even a way he could, without ending his inconvenient little life, get rid of him. Come on, there had to be a solution, he always had a solution.

“Hey, can I call you Red? Red Son’s a mouthful.” MK piped up from behind him. He was partly surprised the idiot hadn’t spotted something shiny and wandered after it like a toddler.

Red Son turned back to him, looking all the more outraged than he already was, “It’s literally two syllabl– you know what? Do whatever you want, I don’t care,” Red Son threw his hands up, quite literally giving up, “If you don’t mind, I need to get back to work.”

“Wait, wait, wait!” MK grabbed his coat sleeve before he could walk away. Red Son scowled and yanked his arm out of his grasp. “Do you mind giving me a tour of the place? I.. still really have no idea where I am or what’s going on.” he laughed to himself.

The fire demon took a deep breath to prevent another outburst, turning on his heel.

“Fine. Try to keep up.”

With MK walking steadily beside him, Red Son managed to lead him down every hallway in the maze of a building he worked at, describing each room and their purposes, without even looking at him. Because yes, he still refused to look at him, and even though he’d sworn he was good at eye contact, he most definitely was not going to be engaging in the matter with someone who had basically stolen his life-long dream from him. And yes, he’d never get over it.

Red Son motioned to his left as they made their way down the last stretch to the final room he was yet to introduce his… co-leading partner to, “This is the mail room, that’s the men’s bathroom,” he then gestured to a tall door on the right.

He was trying to sound enthusiastic, but that effort kind of blew up in his face and he ended up speaking in a monotone voice for the entirety of the tour, as if he’d rather be doing anything in the world besides this right now. Which wasn’t too far from the truth, if he was being completely honest.

The demon sighed as he pointed his hand towards an opaque glass door labelled ‘Cognito Inc. Productions’ that stood directly in front of them. “That’s the screening room where we splice dead animals into children’s cartoons.”

MK looked at him in horror, mouth gaping open to ask some well needed questions, but failing to put together a coherent sentence. Instead he just continued to follow Red Son as he turned the corner past the ill-moraled room.

Of course he’d be hired at a workforce that requires the manipulation of little kids. How fun! He walked past the door, smiling widely while trying his absolute hardest to ignore the pitiful cries of the children they were testing on coming from inside the room.

Suddenly, they were faced with a wide automatic sliding door made of the shiniest metal he’d ever seen, two large windows accompanying it. He swore he’d seen a flicker of pride on his new partner’s face as he allowed himself to enter first so he could continue the tour. MK stepped inside, being hit with a swift but comfortingly warm breeze that blew from the air vents, blending in with the grey ceiling. And speaking of the ceiling, the entire room was efficiently lit with bright white ceiling lights that hung in an orderly, and pleasingly symmetrical manner. Looking around it looked like a warehouse, metal wires snaking along the marble-tiled floor and even climbing the walls that were dressed in elegant machinery. Tables were positioned haphazardly around the room, tools, electronic devices and blue-prints that were folded at the edges scattered across them. There was even your stereotypical mad scientist whiteboard on wheels, painted with complicated mathematical equations and calculations MK would never for the life of him ever understand. 

There was even a fancy platform nearby that looked almost like a break lounge, with a compact kitchen and a neat little microwave and coffee maker. Next to it stood a series of lockers, assuming that was where Red Son stored all his junk while he worked. And if things couldn’t get any more mind blowing, right in the centre of the room, where wires, cameras and laptops were all plugged into, was a giant stage set. 

A stage set that was a replica of the president’s office, from the sunny yellow of the curtains to the intricate details of the wooden desk. And sitting behind it, was none other than the president himself.

“This is my lab,” Red Son spoke up, the heels of his boots dragging across the floor as he let out an exhausted sigh. He wasn’t used to so much.. Walking. 

“Everything here is peaceful, efficient, and the thermostat is controlled entirely by me.” He clasped his hands together proudly. 

Looking around even further, MK noticed that there was even a small room where tons of robots stood idly, shelves stacked with celebrity heads that looked way too accurate to be ai. There was even a cool office area with tons of monitors, a bulletin board overflowing with notes and calendars and a huge machine that he knew every bad guy in all the movies he’d ever watched owned at some point. The laboratory was so big it was super impressive how he’d managed to get his hands on a room like this. Then again he is technically kind of the CEO of the company now. At least he thought he was. 

“Someday, I hope to make the entire world like this,” Red Son muttered to himself as he hopped onto a circular platform. MK watched with bulging eyes as out of thin air, two robotic metal arms swooped to the scientist’s shoulders, pulling off his lab coat and revealing what he wore underneath. Which happened to be a black, sleeveless turtleneck that looked incredibly flattering on him. MK squeaked, averting his gaze as if he was invading his privacy, while the robot arms fitted Red Son with a freshly cleaned coat that was still warm from ironing.

Red Son then realised the implications of what he’d stated prior and stumbled to correct himself, “Efficient, that is. I hope to make the world more efficient, not entirely controlled by me.”

MK looked back at him to see that the robot arms had taken down Red Son’s ponytail, letting his soft-looking hair run freely over his shoulders and down his back, while simultaneously handing the sleep deprived demon a cup of coffee. “That would be totally egomaniacal.. I would never do that.”

He was pretty much rambling at this point, with the usual mindset that he was talking to his empty lab, needing to unload his overflowing thoughts into the atmosphere. 

He took a sip, turning back around to face the new guy, “Unless someone wanted me to, then you know, maybe I’d…” he trailed off as he noticed MK staring at him, wide eyed while he felt the robot arms whir behind him, tying his hair back into its usual ponytail and making it look nice and neat. “What? What is it?”

MK blinked out of his daze, shaking his head quickly, “Uh, nothing.” 

He gasped suddenly, eyes landing on the motionless president that sat behind the fake desk inside his fake office.

“Oh my gosh, Mr. President! What an honor!” The brunet rushed over to the stage set, Red Son staring after him, dumbfounded.

MK stuck out his hand with a wide grin, the ‘president’ in return conducting a highly complex facial recognition scan and matching his face with the celebrities in its database. The robot completed the scan, eyes flashing blue to signal it, and opening its mouth to greet him.

“The honor is mine.. Jack De Sena*.” The ‘president’s jaw opened and closed unnaturally and its voice came out squeaky and robotic. MK frowned in confusion, his arm dropping back to his side slowly.

Red Son came up behind him, clearly holding in a laugh, “This isn’t the president, idiot.” he waved his hand while moving to stand next to his creation to proudly show it off. 

“It’s a robot replica that we’re going to replace him with,” he stated, pushing at the side of its head and making a small door open behind its neck. The robo-president’s face swung open, revealing a horrifying artificial skull, identical to a human skull. Except.. Made of metal. 

Red Son took out a screwdriver from his pocket and fiddled with whatever control panel he’d opened back there, his tongue sticking out slightly in concentration. After he finished, he stood back, allowing the robot arms to swoop in once more and lift the robot over the desk and over MK, making him duck out of reflex.

He chuckled nervously, “Love it! Love that. Haha umm, question,” MK clapped his hands together, “Is this place evil?”

Red Son pondered on that for a moment from where he was currently seated, high up on a platform with a high-tech office chair that could raise to the ceiling. He waved his hands, one of them holding the screwdriver, “Hm, Not necessarily. Here, I invent tech that could prevent war with extraterrestrial beings,” he kept his eyes fixed on his current task, fixing the malfunction that the robot experienced with identifying MK. His glasses reflected the blue flashes of the electricity in the wires as he poked around the circuit boards with expertly trained hand manoeuvres and flawless precision.

The chair finally lowered back to ground level and he spun around, a cream coloured bag in his hands, “And once a year, they give us free tote bags.” 

Red Son emerged from his sitting position, approaching his new colleague and handing it to him. MK gasped, digging through the contents and pulling out a small, pink cylindrical object.

“Awesome! A neuralyzer, just like Men in Black!” MK’s eyes sparkled.

Red Son stared at him with a deadpan expression, “That’s a tampon.”

“Oh–!” He dropped it, abandoning it to the floor. MK quickly discarded the tote bag, turning back to Red Son and jolting when he came face to face with the demon’s fiery gaze. 

The fire demon rolled his eyes and continued to glare at him, “So, tell me, how did you get this job?”

MK shrunk under his intimidating stare, scared he’d soon become a pile of ash if he did remotely anything to piss him off in the slightest. 

“Well, uh, honestly? I graduated community college, was an average student at best,” MK rambled, using his hands to make wild gestures to go along with his story. One thing, Red Son for some reason took mental note of, is that they had one thing in common, which was that they both relied on their hands to communicate more than what could physically come out of their mouths.

“I spent most of my time working in the food industry, mainly as a delivery boy for a noodle shop.” 

Red Son raised an eyebrow, “You’re a noodle boy?” he muttered, half to himself and half for the latter to hear.

MK gave him a weird look, “I suppose you could call it that. Anyway, last weekend I was delivering a huge order to Sun Wukong, and he let me stay for a bit because he said I looked tired. Obviously I couldn’t refuse a little break, but then he told me that he liked how shiny my hair was. Then suddenly they’re throwing a bag over my head and then boom! I’m here!” he spread his arms wide, mimicking an explosion.

Red Son’s jaw dropped, staring at him like he’d just killed someone.

“Oh my fucking god. You don’t have any experience at all!” he smacked an astonished hand to his forehead as if he’d gotten a sudden migraine. Which he wouldn’t be surprised if that was actually the case. 

MK laughed, “Nope!”

“You’re just some kind of… Yes-man,” Red Son continued.

“I guess so!” MK winked, teeth shining.

The scientist pinched the bridge of his nose, groaning. This would be a long day indeed.

════ ⋆🔥🍜⋆ ════

His food remained cold and untouched as Red Son repeatedly stabbed his fork into the sad bread bun that was deflated on his plate. He sat alone at a table far, far away from MK. The only downside was, some of his team, Mei, Sandy and Tang had flocked over to the new guy in town like seagulls, while Red Son was left alone, hunching over the table with his arms folded and shooting death glares at the, now very popular, MK.

Red Son narrowed his eyes even further as he listened to the conversations going on at the opposite table. His hair sparked at every round of laughter that erupted from the group, as he grinded his teeth together angrily.

“Oh my god, I’m so glad you’re here,” Mei clung to his upper arm, “You’re a nice change of pace from Mr. Grumpy pants over there,” she said happily, jerking a thumb in Red Son’s direction.

The fire demon’s hair lit ablaze, bending his fork a complete 180 degrees as a result of squeezing it a little too hard.

“I’ve always wanted a golden retriever friend!” she sang, giggling to herself while MK laughed along joyfully. “I’m Mei, PR and Media Manipulation. I invented selfies to trick the world into surveilling themselves.”

“Huh.” MK smiled, hiding his concern.

Mei then pointed across the table to the big blue hunk with a ginger mohawk and matching beard, “That’s Sandy, he used to serve in the military, if you can tell by his big muscles. But now he manages the company’s weaponry.” 

Suddenly a man who looked like a pig joined them at the table with a plate of his own food. Mei gestured to him, “This is Pigsy! He’s a demon like Red Son, except more tolerable.”

She ignored the defiant cries of offense from behind her as Red Son tried to deflect the stabs to his ego from afar.

“And I’m Tang, head of biochem,” a man with neatly combed black hair and glasses, wearing a similar lab coat to Red Son, spoke up in front of him. Tang stared at MK with half-lidded eyes, “If you need some poison to wipe out your greatest enemies, I’m the guy to ask.”

“Wow! What a group,” MK smiled, already enjoying his new friends’ company, “Or shall I call us, ‘the gang’?” He finger-gunned them.

“Ooh, I love that! You’re so cool MK!” Mei gushed, head in her hands as her elbows balanced on the table in front of her. “Did you come up with that?”

“Sure did!” The brunet smirked, finger-gunning them a second time. The rest of the group laughed at his antics, commenting on how they loved finger guns and that the guy was super charming. Watching from afar, Red Son thought he might actually puke for real this time.

The bitter expression never left his face as he sat with his arms crossed over his chest, hair smoking. Pigsy joined him, side-eyeing the scientist.

“You feelin’ threatened, pal?” he chuckled.

Red Son refused to take his eyes off MK, silently wishing that if he glared at him hard enough, he’d explode. “I’d tell you to eat shit, but I don’t know, maybe your species enjoys that.” he grumbled.

“Woah, no need to be so harsh. I was gonna say, maybe this guy is just what you need,” Pigsy took a seat next to him. The fire demon raised an eyebrow looking every bit unamused by the implication.

“Elaborate.”

“Well, I reckon you’ve been a little… ah how do I put this lightly,” Pigsy sighed, “Anxious? Over the Robotus project, I mean. You’ve been distant, sleeping less, working more hours than are legally required, and you’re.. Very easily irritated. I guarantee that at least three quarters of the complaints filed in Wukong’s office occurred after you were assigned the project.”

The pig demon shrugged, “Having some well-meaning company could take your mind off things for a while. You’re stressed out Red Son. Take this opportunity to sit back and relax.”

“That noodle boy is anything but well-meaning company. He’s an obstacle who’s here to ruin my chances at something great.” Red Son slammed his fist on the table, making the fork jump and fall off the plate. 

He wiped his eye from beneath his glasses, “I’m fine Pigsy. I don’t need him, I don’t need anyone to ‘help’ me relieve my so-called stress.”

He couldn’t afford to rely on anyone. Not even Macaque. 

Pigsy didn’t respond, nodding and getting up to leave him be. Maybe he’s just what Red Son needed? How ridiculous. MK was nothing but an inconvenient hurdle he had to get over before he could reach his destiny. On his own. 

All he had to do was try and get rid of the hurdle, creating a clear path to the top. Still, Pigsy’s words repeated in his head, ringing in the depths of his ears. The noodle boy was what he needed. No, how could he possibly need him? Red Son shook his head, ridding himself of the lingering thoughts with a scoff. 

He got up and left, taking his plate with him.

════ ⋆🔥🍜⋆ ════

Macaque dug a greedy paw inside his bag of chips, popping some in his mouth before chuckling at the television. He laid on the couch, still wearing the same clothes he was wearing earlier that morning when Red Son had driven over to pick him off the street. He munched on his food, cheesy flavouring sticking to his fingers as said fire demon crossed the living room holding a basket of laundry. Having discarded his lab coat, he now was once again left wearing his sleeveless turtleneck and purple pants, though he’d already rid himself of the heavy boots but kept his socks on. 

The events of today kept him in a sour mood, his face stuck in a pained frown the entire afternoon. He dropped the blue basket next to his small desk near the couch where he stationed himself whenever he had to work at home. It wasn’t as spacious as his desks at work, but it sufficed. At least it had a lamp, the same bulletin board, although it was incredibly small, and a comfortable chair. 

He slumped into his chair with a sigh, “Hey Macaque. On a scale of one to ten, how unlikable am I?”

Macaque stopped chewing, putting his chips to the side and sitting up to look over at Red Son.

“Why? What’s going on?”

“It’s really nothing.” Red Son replied, pulling out the head of the robo-president and positioning it at the side of his desk. He slid off his glasses, craning his neck down as he wiped the lenses with his shirt. “It’s just, uh, Wukong hired this guy to help co lead the team.”

Red Son placed his glasses back on with a frown, pulling out his laptop so he could get some work done. He opened the computer, turning it on and beginning to enter his password with one hand while waving the other at Macaque, “It’s not a big deal.”

“What?” Macaque shrieked, leaping from his spot on the couch, “I smell a coup!” he exclaimed, pointing a finger up to the ceiling. “Wukong is a snake. He’s trying to get rid of you, push you out of the company exactly like he did to me!”

Red Son frowned at his laptop screen, spinning around in his chair to face him.

“You were fired for going crazy and trying to blow up Australia,” he corrected him.

“I was trying to solve overpopulation, come on!” Macaque whined, throwing his hands in the air. “Look bud, if you don’t get rid of him, it’ll be you wearing these chip stained sweatpants,” the monkey pointed down at what he was wearing, and it was indeed a pair of sweatpants covered in cheese dust. Red Son grimaced in disgust, turning back around to continue his work.

“You need a plan.” Macaque leaned over his shoulder, squinting at his laptop screen. Red Son groaned, pushing his laptop away and getting up from his seat.

“I have a plan,” he shot back at him, “I’m going to make the best AI anyone has ever seen. And once we officially launch the project, they’ll see that I don’t need a co-leader,” He smiled in determination.

 “And that eye contact is overrated!” He quickly added.

He returned to his laptop, shutting it and sliding it into his duffel bag along with the robot head. How it managed to fit inside his bag would forever remain a mystery, but all that was on his mind was his plan to finally prove himself worthy, carefully strung together inside his head like that of a detective working on a crime case. The company, and his job was counting on him.

Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he left the room, leaving Macaque on his own again as he called after him, “Attaboy Red! Good talk, real good talk’.”

════

The sky was dark now, stars twinkling and mocking him, signs that it was perhaps just a little past midnight when he should be curled up on his twin sized bed in his cramped bedroom. Instead, he was climbing the steps that led to the doors of Cognito Inc., holding his duffel bag tightly while rubbing at the dark circles under his eyes. 

Sure he was tired, and hasn’t slept in a little over 36 hours, but he had to do this. For the sake of the company and for the sake of the country. He almost denied his ulterior motive. Proving to Sun Wukong that he was ready, and getting rid of that noodle delivering nuisance who proved to be a thorn in his side since, well… several hours ago. But he couldn’t dare admit that he was.. Intimidated by MK. He’d rather die than admit those words aloud.

He was just a threat. With his strikingly good looks and outgoing personality. Still, he had a job to do, one that would put him back on top of the popularity pyramid and leave the noodle boy weeping at the bottom. 

The thoughts lifted his spirits at least, as a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. His smile almost instantly faltered as his mind snapped. Did he just admit to himself that he thought MK was.. Attractive?

His hair began to smoke, shaking his head as if doing so would shake away those humiliating thoughts. God, was he really starting to give in to the guy’s irresistible charm? He’d barely even spoken to him and he was already.. Ugh.

Nevermind, it was best he should stop worrying about that for now and focus on his current task at hand. He grumbled to himself, kicking pebbles along the pavement, “Forget about him, my work will speak for itself.”

Red Son didn’t notice the warmth of his hair still sparking and flickering as he entered the building, gripping his bag tightly.

════ ⋆🔥🍜⋆ ════

It was early morning now, the sun had long since poked its blistering head over the horizon and begun its hike along the sky. Red Son hadn’t slept a wink, spending all night perfecting his creation. He couldn’t afford to have any issues, bugs or malfunctions whatsoever with his official promotion to CEO on the line. And he didn’t need to worry about his horribly fucked up sleep schedule, that’s what caffeine is for!

He adjusted his coat with a sigh, writing down a few notes on the clipboard he held in his hands, while standing in front of the robot president. The demon cleared his throat, which was notably dry from all of the test runs he’d been conducting. 

“Alright, let’s see here..” he squinted at his sleepy hand writing through his glasses, “Good morning, Mr. President. Would you like some coffee?” Red Son offered sweetly, with a smile.

The robot looked at him and returned the smile with an artificial twinkle in its eye, “You betcha! I’ll take some sugar with that too.” he replied in a voice that was identical to the real president’s. That was a good sign, the voice box was working smoothly, no pronunciation errors either!

Red Son smiled in his success, scribbling the results on the sheet clasped to his clipboard. He turned around to reveal that his entire team was standing off the stage, watching the scientist present his finished invention. Mei had sparkles in her eyes, being a massive robot enthusiast herself, while the rest of them looked on, already bored and questioning why they were even there. But Red Son’s eyes only fixed on Sun Wukong, who surveyed with his arms crossed over his chest and a proud smirk. 

“As you may see, I have gone above and beyond to complete this project to perfection, with much success. Thanks to countless all-nighters and hundreds of gallons of coffee!” he tucked his clipboard under his arm with a smug grin.

“Now Robotus here is just as insufferable as the real thing!” He whacked the robot’s back, making its joints creak against the force.

Sun Wukong clapped his hands along with Mei, the two being the only ones who seemed to pay attention. Tang was occupied with a bowl of noodles, as always. Red Son seriously believes he has never seen the lunatic not snacking happily on a bowl of noodles. Sandy was as bird-brained as ever, distracted by a yellow butterfly that had somehow broken into his lab. Pigsy on the other hand, he was there, just not mentally. Poor guy was probably daydreaming about his dream job again, running a restaurant and becoming the head chef.

“Fantastic!” Wukong clapped while Mei cheered from beside him,” The Shadow Board should be very pleased with your efforts.”

Suddenly a blue holographic image projected behind them, displaying five cloaked figures wearing triangle head pieces and golden masks. They each stood nobly over a large earth globe, their hands clasped together in front of them. Their cloaks were darker than space, so dark that if you stared too hard you might be sucked in like a black hole.

The cloaked figures spoke in deep, spine-chilling voices that brought on a classic case of the goosebumps whenever they were heard. The Shadow Board was no light-hearted joke, in fact, the mysterious face-less figures had more power than the entirety of Cognito Inc. They practically ran the company that ran the world. So, yes, very horrifyingly powerful beings.

“We are.” The Shadow Board reassured in unison.

Sun Wukong deflated, spinning around and staring up at them nervously, “Uh– How long have you been watching? Your Robenesses.. Sirs,” he stuttered awkwardly.

“We’re always watching.” They replied instantly, “We’re very impressed.”

The Shadow Board looked to Red Son and his invention.

“But is there any possibility that it could go rogue?” They questioned.

Red Son kept his composure even though he was speaking to a board of beings that were equivalent to God, except, you know, significantly less moral. He smiled up at them, clipboard in hand, “Don’t worry. He isn’t self aware. His brain is just a sophisticated slurry of Super Bowl commercials and controversial political dialogue.” 

Red Son chuckled, leaning his right arm on the robot’s shoulder, “He is way too patriotic to revolt.”

“And!” he added, moving his arm behind Robotus to press a hidden button, “Bonus features. Like this ergonomically convenient travel setting,” he motioned his hand towards what had now transformed into a small brief-case in the blink of an eye.

And now for his comedic finishing quote, “Finally, a president we can shut up with the press of a button!”

“Wonderful. How soon can it be launched?” The Shadow Board responded, if they were eager their tone of voice sure did not sound like it.

Red Son put his clipboard down safely, folding his hands behind his back, “Right away.”

The Shadow Board turned to Sun Wukong, “Your team has performed excellent work, I see a promotion to our Shadow Board in your future.”

Wukong smiled, “Well the praise surely belongs to–”

The stone monkey was interrupted by the doors to the lab sliding open and the sound of a fog horn blaring through the speakers of a phone that was propped in the hand of the late employee. MK marched into the room holding bags of noodle take-out he’d snatched up from the place he usually works at. Tang’s jaw dropped, and so did the bowl of noodles he held that had grown cold and stale from being in the kitchen’s refrigerator. 

“What’s up, gang! What’d I miss? Guess who brought food,” MK waved the plastic bags at them with an infuriatingly large grin. Everyone in the room gasped except for Red Son, who situated himself with a cold glare as his eye twitched.

MK brought the bags over to a clean table, revealing all kinds of noodles and dumplings stored snuggly in plastic containers. Red Son’s team flocked to the heavenly smell of chicken and spice, including Sun Wukong.

Red Son ignored the small rumbling of his stomach. When was the last time he’d eaten? He frowned, clutching his stomach. No. He was not going to consume something that had been handled by the dirty hands of the plebeian who dared disrespect him by simply being there.

“Thank goodness! I’m starving!” Tang sighed, ignoring the deadpan look from Pigsy.

Wukong shoved a mouthful of noodles in his mouth, “MK! No one has ever gone above and beyond like this!” 

Red Son spat out the coffee he was in the middle of drinking, hair lighting aflame, “I literally just solved artificial intelligence!” the short tempered demon shrieked in protest.

The entire room ignored him as Wukong wrapped an arm around his shoulders, “It’s only MK’s second day of work and productivity has already gone up..like, two hundred percent!” 

MK laughed with him as the monkey patted his back like a proud father.

“Because I worked all night and finished early!” Red Son gritted, pointing a thumb to his own chest before clenching his fists in anger.

The Shadow Board spoke up, “Exceptional. We will not be forgetting the name ‘MK’.” 

Red Son’s team surrounded him, offering the clueless man pats on the back and cheering his name like he was a famous pop singer. Red Son was absolutely seething. All five of them began to chant, pumping their fists in the air while the fire demon muttered to himself, turning away from them.

Whatever, he didn’t need their approval anyway. They could all go partying all day with MK for all he cared, he didn’t care. He didn’t mind his achievements being discarded to the side in favour of some little thief who stole the glory he deserved. He didn’t mind being kicked to the curb while his so-called friends left him behind to buddy up with that infuriating noodle boy. 

He didn’t mind how much everyone hated him and his abrasive personality. He only wanted what was best for the company, was that so bad? He pretended not to hear the shallow voices and the whispers that went on behind his back, only speaking ill of him. He pretended not to notice the forced smiles and the happy attitude his coworkers would fake whenever he approached them. 

No, he was sick of pretending. Of pretending that every early morning greeting he’d receive as he exited the elevator wasn’t just someone trying not to get on his bad side. Were they afraid of him? Was that really the case? But how, when all he had been doing this entire time was letting everyone step all over him, push him around and make him feel worthless. He was a fire demon who was supposed to defend his honor and conquer any mortal who showed him even an ounce of disrespect. 

And he couldn’t do that. Pathetic.

He was so, very sick and tired. And most of all, he was sick of pretending that all of these things didn’t hurt.

Red Son was a demon, but that didn’t mean he was a monster. He had everything a human had. Feelings, emotions, a heart. A beating heart that crushed inside his ribs every time something like this would happen. And he supposed this might’ve been the final push.

Now nothing but rage filled his eyes and fueled his hair, as he punched the wall with a small yell. Normally he loved the adrenaline that ran through his veins, but this time all he wanted was for it to go away. For everything to just be fine and okay. When had it suddenly become difficult to breathe? Was he crying too? Not possible, the scientist didn’t have time for tears.

From across the room MK heard the wall groan against the force of being punched. He raised an eyebrow, a little confused why no one else noticed too. Then it happened.

MK gasped as a whirl-wind of flames curled around his colleague like a fiery blanket and in a matter of seconds, it dissipated, leaving behind an empty space where Red Son once stood. He tried to pull away from his new friends, concerned for his work partner and where he’d gone. Unlike the others except Mei, he thought what Red Son made was pretty cool, even though he missed the presentation.

And he’d held back a frown when his life changing achievement was reduced to that of a child’s preschool project. Valueless. How was him bringing in a few bags of noodles worth more than what Red Son achieved this morning? God, now he felt guilty.

Surely, he had to apologise to him. Somehow. Red Son was cold, despite being a fire demon, and he’d done nothing but bad mouth him and shower him with insults, but he didn’t deserve the treatment he got today. No one did.

Why was he the only one who saw that?

════ ⋆🔥🍜⋆ ════

The room was freezing. Mei must have forgotten to switch off the air conditioning before leaving. Temperatures like this froze his joints and made his eyes dry and lips chapped. So much for ‘adapting to mortal customs.’ The cold had its benefits though. As quickly as Red Son had teleported here, his fire extinguished along with his outburst.

He didn’t know why he came here of all places, but he supposed it was the first place he’d thought of to get away. Maybe he found comfort in this little room, where his team would gather each day in their normal work routine. Maybe he did enjoy their company after all, and it took until the moment he’d let them slip away for him to finally realise it. His back hit against one of the walls in the conference room, sliding down until he sat on the floor with his knees hugged to his chest. As he slid down he watched the triangular table grow taller than him, until he could see underneath it. The fire demon sniffled, bowing his head towards his lap and muttering, “God damn it.”

Red Son didn’t even know why he’d run away, choosing the coward’s way out. But he guessed he couldn’t bear the stress any longer. Okay, maybe Pigsy was a little right about the stress thing. He knew that though, but surely he wasn’t so stressed that something in his brain had snapped?  He hated how the room was silent and still, save for the white noise provided by the light’s buzzing.

Everything had gone downhill so quickly, all because of a stupid human who’d invaded his life and took an unworthy position as his official work partner. He wishes he could just disappear for good so everything can go back to normal. Where he wasn’t forced to confront his own irrelevant feelings inside a cold, empty room. Alone with his thoughts. 

It was all.. His fault. Him and his blatantly vapid bandana.

And if things couldn’t get any worse, his ears twitched as it picked up the sound of the doors being pushed open and somebody quietly entering. Red Son kept his face buried in his arms that were folded around his knees as he prayed that whoever had walked in would turn around and leave after seeing the sulking demon sitting on the floor.

He made a small noise similar to a child’s whine in an attempt to scare away whoever had come in, but he listened as the person gently shut the door behind them and tip-toed towards him. Red Son didn’t dare look up and reveal who had interrupted his self loathing.

Lucky for him, the person revealed themselves for him. And of course it had to be the last person he’d wanted to see after his melt down.

“Hey.. dude. Are–are you feeling okay?” The noodle boy’s annoying voice pounded at his skull.

“Leave me alone,” Red Son groaned, “I don’t want your pity.”

He held his breath as he felt the boy take a seat directly beside him. Red Son slowly looked up, turning his head to glare at him. He didn’t know why, but somehow he didn’t have the strength to even manage that. Only staring at him sadly.. 

“Didn’t you hear me, Noodle boy!?” Red Son’s voice cracked a little, making himself cringe and look away. “Don’t make me blast you into the roof,” he muttered to himself.

MK tilted his head with a smile, laughing at the nickname he’d stuck with since explaining how he’d even ended up here in the first place, before leaning his head back against the wall.

“I didn’t know you could teleport. It was pretty cool,” the brunet grinned, nudging the fire demon’s shoulder with his own.

Red Son glanced down, trying not to chide him for invading his personal space once more. But honestly, he didn’t care anymore. His world was already crumbling around him, he might as well curl up in a ball and wait for his inevitable death. Plus, he was supposed to be furious with the boy sitting next to him, but he just.. Wasn’t. He was before, why not now?

“It’s.. a common skill amongst most demons. I managed to master it quite easily.” Red Son informed him, moving to sit up straighter, pressing his back further into the wall behind them. “I try not to use it so often. Most are confused by demon magic… if ever they tried to comprehend it, it would melt their brains.” 

A shameless lie. The real reason he doesn’t use his teleportation magic too much is because it’s exhausting, especially when he gets zero hours of sleep each night.

“Do your friends know you can do that?” The noodle boy asked, genuinely fascinated by this newfound knowledge.

“Of course they do. I scare the life out of those peasants each time.” Red Son mumbled, fighting a smile while fiddling with his hands. He wasn’t used to this kind of small talk, always trying to avoid it whenever he had to communicate with his fellow coworkers. Or perhaps they avoided making small talk with him. Now that he’d brought light to the recent subject, that made a lot more sense.

He and MK were incredibly awkward, but they were still comfortable regardless. Talking to MK was surprisingly… calming him down a little. Red Son wanted to object to this, and straight up leave so he wouldn’t have to deal with all of this insanity in one day. He wanted to return home, flop onto his bed and pull the covers over his head until the break of dawn. But his limbs felt like weights, and he could not move.

Today was seriously a sick fever dream.

“You’re really cool Red. I wish I had powers,” MK sighed, “You did a real great job today. You really killed it.”

Red Son snickered, “..Thanks? And you did great… at bringing noodles.” he deadpanned.

“You think so? I just wanna make a good impression, I feel like I’m not really doing anything and it’s making me a nervous wreck.” MK chuckled, frowning a little at the floor. 

The redhead chose not to respond, not having any intention to console him or participate in any heart-to-heart therapy sessions. His entire career was too busy going up in flames for him to be in a good mood. And he was sitting next to and getting all up close and personal with the culprit.

Right when Red Son thought he may as well get up and go on about his day to prepare for the launch of his project, MK awkwardly cleared his throat.

“Listen, the reason I came to find you was so I could.. Apologise.” 

This piqued the demon’s curiosity, as he raised an eyebrow, turning his head to meet MK’s gaze. He hadn’t noticed quite clearly before, but his eyes were a particularly alluring brown, one shade lighter than his hair colour. Red Son blinked at him.

“Excuse me?”

“Apologise. For.. y’know. Stealing your thunder back there. You got pretty upset,” The noodle boy answered, staring at him unsurely. He started to squirm nervously when the latter stared back at him, eyes growing wide.

“I don’t really understand the technical stuff.. But I can tell you’d been working really hard on it. It must’ve hurt when your friends downgraded your work. So I’m sorry.” MK offered a slight smile, waiting for a response from the other. Red Son gaped at him, this time being accompanied by a burning feeling in his cheeks that gradually spread down his neck. 

After a while of no response, MK sighed, placing a hand on his shoulder and patting it reassuringly, “I’ll leave you alone.”

Part of him wanted to blurt out for him so stay, but that would be absurd! How could he possibly be.. Enjoying his company? He was definitely going crazy, and it had only been MK’s second day on the job. Unknowingly, his hair began to smoke again, and for the first time it wasn’t caused by any forms of anger whatsoever. He had no idea what it was, but he did not like it.

Red Son managed a curt nod through his short circuiting brain, watching as the noodle boy got up and left the room, shutting the door gently behind him. His shoulder remained warm with the lingering memory of MK’s hand. No, his entire body felt warm. As he frowned at the table in front of him, he blamed the sudden feeling on the warmth of the room.

The air conditioning was still on.

════ ⋆🔥🍜⋆ ════

All night, the scientist tossed and turned in his sheets, muttering and mumbling to himself and trying to relax, to no avail. He just couldn’t sleep, despite the fact that he literally hasn’t slept at all in two days. It was bizarre, how the events that took place in the conference room not so long ago had him so worked up. The noodle boy wasn’t worth fretting over at ungodly hours of the night, so why was he? Why couldn’t he get his stupid face out of his head, or the moment he’d genuinely cared, as he apologised to him with a hand on his shoulder?

Was he seriously that starved of affection? Red Son shivered, despite being wrapped in layers of blankets. If things didn’t stop now, he’d fall under his spell like the rest of the dummies he worked with, and he was not going to accept defeat so easily. When the noodle boy offered him a sincere apology, it made Red Son’s head hurt. Because the look in the boy’s eyes as he did so, made Red Son feel.. Happy.

And feeling happy, felt so good. And he did not like that. MK was the last person he wanted making him feel such things. It went against everything he stood for. MK was his enemy, and he would stay his enemy until he watched him pack his things in a cardboard box and leave Cognito Inc. for good.

He ignored the protests from deep inside his heart, choosing to listen to what his brain had to say instead. He couldn’t afford to be vulnerable, not now, not ever.

Red Son stared at the peeling paint on his ceiling with a small frown on his face. If he was going to get rid of the noodle boy, he had to be smart about it. And he knew just what to do.

The next morning started off how it usually would, hollow greetings from those he passed by, a few judgemental stares sprinkled in too. Red Son walked by a small room on one of the higher floors of the building, hands resting inside the pockets of his lab coat. As he passed one of the large windows, he immediately back-tracked, peering inside and spotting MK, standing over one of those miniature football tables.

Red Son rolled his eyes. Was he really fooling around while he was supposed to be doing his job? Wait, what was his job exactly? The demon realised he’d never actually asked, as he was too busy hating his guts. Oh well, he didn’t care anyway, he’d be losing it soon enough. Red Son pushed the door open and silently entered the room, letting the door close behind him on its own.

He watched with the same judgemental stare  others had given him prior, as MK accidentally pulled out an entire rod from the table, breaking it. The boy panicked, desperately trying to shove it back into place when Red Son decided to clear his throat to let him know he was there, witnessing his stupidity.

MK jumped, whirling around to face him, “I didn’t do it–! Oh, hey Red Son,” the fear on his face immediately melted into a fond smile.

Red Son ignored how it made his heart squeeze inside his chest, and not in a bad way. He spoke up to avoid dwelling on that any longer, feeling his hair start to spark a little, “What are you doing in here?”

“Oh. I still have nothing to do around here, and I’m still a little nervous, so I found this room that has some cool games and I’ve been chilling in here all morning,” MK spoke in such a happy, carefree tone it made the latter feel sick to his stomach. How did he manage to put up the charade every single day of his life? Surely he couldn’t be like this all the time?

Unless he was.. Faking it. Trying to trick them, even.

Red Son raised an eyebrow, something formulating in his head.

“This job can be a lot of pressure for people like you.”

Oh God, what was he doing. 

“Ninety percent of recruits suffer mental breakdowns within their first week,” the scientist continued, staring at MK with half-lidded eyes. 

The other seemed unaffected by the statistics, as his attention was fixated on fiddling with his tie until it was tucked into his jacket properly. Red Son sighed. His antics were as annoying as him.

Still, he did not give in.

“If I were you, I’d get out while you still can.” The fire demon looked away innocently, waiting for the other’s response. He expected MK to say something like ‘Hey! You’re right, I’m actually quitting right now, thanks Red Son, see ya!’ and prance out of the room, never to be seen again. And he wouldn’t object to that, he might have actually waved him goodbye to add a cherry on top.

But MK laughed at him, clutching his stomach and wiping a nonexistent tear from the corner of his eye. “You’re hilarious! Everyone knows you always gotta stay positive when things are negative,” he winked, flashing his teeth in a grin.

“Because a negative plus a positive is better than nothing, right?” The brunet shot him another finger gun. Red Son stared at him like he was a complete and utter moron, which he was, hair bursting into flames as he went to yell at the top of his lungs.

“It’s literally nothing, you noodle brain! They cancel each other out, it’s basic mathematics,” He shrieked, shaking the entire room while MK had to hold onto his bandana to prevent it from flying off his head. And even though Red Son had yet again exploded into an unnecessary outburst, his smile remained. 

It was a few hours later, Red Son scoffed to himself as he watched MK chatting happily with Mei and the others from the other side of the conference table, arms crossed and looking as resentful as ever. So that didn’t work. He’d attempted the scare tactic, and he was foolish to think that he’d ever be fazed by it. Because clearly he’d been watching too many feel-good films in his spare time.

The scientist narrowed his eyes, still staring directly at the noodle boy.

“He’s obviously overselling the harmless idiot thing,” he muttered to himself, “Who do you really work for, Noodle boy?”

Later that day, Red Son sat at his desk, basking in his own misery while his team was probably off having a fun time with his colleague slash coleading partner slash sworn enemy. He sighed miserably, his head resting in his right hand while he flicked a pencil on his desk with the other. 

Every single one of his plans to try and manipulate and sway the imbecile into quitting would immediately backfire, being defeated by the delivery boy’s overwhelming positivity. He was starting to think not a single negative thought resided in his puny human brain, as every time he’d meet him he was flashed with the same innocent smile that made his stomach do flips.

He silently watched as everytime he flicked the pencil away, it would come rolling right back to him. He frowned. In a way it was sort of like MK. No matter how hard he tried to push him away, he’d just come running right back to him. What was his deal?

The clock was ticking against him, he was running out of time before the official launch of his greatest project. But then something.. Clicked. What if, instead of trying to push him away by himself, he makes the others join in too?

It sounded ridiculous, but he had no other choice. Red Son moved to fetch his laptop, opening it with a determined frown and cracking his knuckles.

════ ⋆🔥🍜⋆ ════

“And next on the list, I made up some awesome nicknames for everyone,” MK announced, laying back in his chair as Mei, Tang, Pigsy, Sandy and Sun Wukong all gathered around the table, watching the powerpoint slide he’d created with the title of ‘MK’s super rad ideas!’

The list was obscure, consisting of events that were totally irrelevant to their work, such as phone shoes, Taco Tuesdays, and Noodle Wednesdays. But everyone seemed to love it, including Wukong! Mei even pitched in with her crazy ideas that eventually lumped in with MK’s, Sun Wukong approving the ideas without hesitation as they all laughed and enjoyed themselves.

Before he could utter his next sentence, the doors squeaked open, dragging across the tiles and shutting loudly behind them. Sun Wukong looked up, spotting the familiar bright red hair.

“Red Son, you’re late agai– Woah!” the monkey yelled.

The fire demon entered the room looking like he’d just taken a dive inside one of the offices’ dumpsters out the back. His hair was knotted and unruly, while his coat was rumpled and tangled in red string. Red Son approached the table with his laptop tucked underneath his arm, ignoring the horrified stares from his coworkers and the whispers they shared.

He glared at them, this time with twice as much fury as his usual glares, trying to brush off the string that stuck to the fabric of his coat. MK tilted his head with a confused smile, “The late again, great again Dr. Tardy!” the brunet teased harmfully.

Red Son marched and stood next to where MK was sitting, pointing at him with a threatening finger, “Call me that again and I’ll melt your face off,” he growled.

MK didn’t reply, giving him the same shit-eating grin. Red Son placed his laptop on the table and fired it up, “Listen up people, you think you know this man, but you actually know nothing.”

His coworkers groaned in unison as he pulled up an image of MK’s resume on the projector screen. The brunet smiled up at it, as if he was proud.

“Exhibit A. His resume. It says here, the only experience he’s ever had in the workforce is at the noodle shop down the street!” Red Son exclaimed, displaying pictures of him delivering noodles for the place he worked at.

Tang gasped, “No way! You work at that noodle shop? That place is the best!”

“Agreed, that place rocks,” Sun Wukong piped up from beside the scientist, giving him a disappointed eyebrow raise. Red Son shook his head in anger, his face going red.

“No! You don’t understand,” He shouted, “He can’t be trusted.”

Red Son pointed to MK’s face, his eyes staring off into space paired with a blank smile. If the guy was trying to convince them that he wasn’t under any evil influence using the expression on his face, he was doing a pretty solid job.

“We have no idea who this guy is!” Red Son threw his hands in the air like he was fed up with everything. Which he was. “And what sane living being names their offspring two letters of the alphabet? It probably isn’t even his real name!”

Out of breath from the shouting and hair wild and askew, he slowly looked around the room to study their reactions. And their faces were the complete opposite of how he intended for them to react. They all stared at him numbly, brows furrowed like disappointed parents towering over their pathetic children.  

For the first time, the looks on their faces truly made his heart race in the worst way possible, regret worming its way through him like the heat that usually warmed his insides. Instead he wasn’t warm, he felt oddly cold, the flames that engulfed his hair died out, and silence followed closely behind. 

He turned to look at MK who was no longer smiling, but staring at him with wide, confused eyes. It seemed once again, his final chance had backfired on him. And as he stared into the eyes of whom he’d tried to sabotage, he felt awful. 

“He..” Red Son mumbled, his mind’s attempt at trying to recollect his thoughts and push on. But his voice wavered and his shoulders slumped in defeat, slamming his laptop shut and hugging it to his chest.

“I– I’m sorry, I don’t know what…” Red Son stared at the floor and muttered to himself. “God, what is wrong with me,” he dragged a hand down his face, quickly making a break for the door before he embarrassed himself even further. 

“Red Son.” Sun Wukong’s voice stopped him before he could escape, making his blood run cold as if it wasn’t cold enough already. “This is Macaque’s breakdown all over again,” he sighed in annoyance.

“I’m taking you off the Robotus launch.” 

Red Son’s entire world came crashing down over him, face paling. In his shock, he almost dropped his laptop on the ground as he stumbled backwards, losing all feeling in his legs. 

“Wh–What? But that’s my life’s work!” His voice cracked, cringing to himself. 

From across the room, MK noticed the demon was shaking. And this time, it was not from anger. He was devastated. He should be mad at him, for trying to get him fired. But he couldn’t bring himself to feel angry. He felt bad for him.

Red Son glanced at his friends for support, begging with teary eyes for them to say something, anything that would help him persuade Wukong to keep him on the project. But they all looked upon him with shame, Mei studied her nails with a frown and even Pigsy was shaking his head slowly. 

Great. It took him until he’d been fired from the team to realise that it wasn’t MK ruining his career. It wasn’t MK’s fault at all, and it never was. It was all him. He sabotaged himself, thinking it was best for himself, and his team, if MK wasn’t around.

But in reality, he’d only proved that his team was better off without him. Maybe Pigsy was right about a few other things after all. Maybe Red Son really did need MK. To realise that he was a horrible person who wasn’t worthy of wearing the CEO badge in the end. 

He looked back at MK, hoping he’d notice that the guilty look in his golden eyes would suffice as an apology for now. But to him, MK looked hurt, averting his gaze and fiddling with his fingers nervously.

“Take off the rest of the week, month, whatever. Get out of here. And don’t come back until your head’s straight.” He uncrossed his arms to tug at his collar.

Red Son stood before them, defeated and heart broken, unclipping his employment identification card from his coat pocket and letting it clatter to the floor. In his pursuit to get to the top of Cognito Inc., he had ended up in the slums. With no one but himself to blame. 

As the doors slammed behind the now ex-employee, Sun Wukong cleared his throat and stood up from his chair, pulling MK with him. He shook his hand eagerly with a proud smile, “Congratulations MK, you’re the new leader of the project. Get ready to prep the robot for Air Force One!” Wukong chirped, placing a hand on his back.

MK’s jaw went slack, “M–Me? But..”

“You’re in charge now MK. You’ll do great, I know it.” The monkey smiled, patting him reassuringly. Mei, Pigsy, Tang and Sandy gathered around him to offer enthusiastic smiles and emotional support, especially since Red Son had come in and completely humiliated himself.

“You’re not some short-tempered genius who’s gonna crack under pressure,” he chuckled, clearly referring to Red Son. 

Mei wrapped an arm around his shoulder, checking if he’s feeling alright after what just happened. “You doing okay there buddy? You seem bothered.”

“Shouldn’t we be checking if Red Son’s okay?” MK asked her, his frown remaining.

Mei scoffed loudly, waving her hand, “Pshh, who cares about him. He obviously needs a break anyway, the guy has been super unhinged lately.”

“I guess so..” MK mumbled, staring at the door. Part of him had a horrible, horrible feeling about this.

════

Red Son unlocked the door to his apartment, pushing the door open slowly as he observed the scene. It was dark since all the lights were off, meaning Macaque was out and about messing around somewhere. He’d give a fuck, if he wasn’t currently unemployed and depressed. 

He kicked the door shut before dragging his heavy feet along the ground as he made his way to the couch, not even bothering to switch the lights on, resulting in him tripping over a box on the floor and crashing onto the ground with a large thud.

“ Fuck,” he hissed into the cold floor, slowly turning and rolling over to lay on his back. He threw an arm over his eyes like having them open burned. “I’m such a fucking screw up,” he sniffled.

MK didn’t deserve what he tried to pull on him, despite the arguing in his head. He had to get his morals straight, the noodle boy clearly only ever wanted to befriend him, and he’d treated him like shit. Red Son didn’t hate him, he couldn’t.

He couldn’t bring himself to hate his smile, his bubbly laugh and even the stupid bandana that honestly suited him. The bandana was a symbol of a warrior, and he supposed he was one, in his own unique MK way.

And look, he’ll admit he truly isn’t bad looking, in fact that was his first thought when he met him for the first time. He was ashamed to admit it. He had only known him for three days now, and he had already gotten Red Son feeling strange. It wasn’t what he thought it was, right?

No, definitely not. Luckily his coat sleeve that lay over his eyes hid the redness in his face. Goodness, he had to stop thinking about this. The fire demon distracted himself by finally allowing his body to peel himself off of the floor, the coldness leaving his skin.

He threw himself on the couch, relaxing against it as he gathered his scattering thoughts all in one place. How was he even going to apologise to the noodle boy, if he most likely never wanted to see his face again? He didn’t even think he’d ever forgive him, anyway!

Ah well. That was a lost cause then. May as well forget about everything, all of his life goals and achievements, and whither away on his living room couch snacking on chips all day and watching reality TV like Macaque. How productive.

There was no point in trying to do anything else. His career was ruined, his friendships were ruined, his life was ruined. All because his jealousy had gotten the best of him. It was shameful. Staring at the blank flat screen television that hung on his wall, he imagined the project, his project, being launched right at this moment. Without him.

════

MK rubbed at his eyes, his pupils reduced to pinpoints as he stared at the dozens of screens displayed in front of him. One of his eyes twitched as he tried to hide the fact that his eyes were literally being scorched by the ultra blue light punching at his retinas. But he had to endure the pain a little longer, as he was currently in charge of the launch of Red Son’s invention.

Hey, at least the chairs were comfortable. Plus he had his entire team sitting right by his side, Tang kicked back with his feet up on the table, Mei beside him reading some papers, and Sandy having a lengthy conversation with Pigsy. 

For some reason, his mouth started moving on his own as his mind tried to pump him up for what was bound to come. “Okay, MK. You can do this. Switch out the President with a robot in front of the leaders of the free world. Should be easy-peasy, right? Right. Yeah…”

“You good MK?” Mei leaned over, batting her eyelashes innocently.

The brunet nodded, scratching the back of his neck, “Yep! A-Okay!” 

He chuckled, smiling through his worries. He seemed to be keeping composure, but he was most definitely concealing an internalised panic attack. Why did Wukong dump this kind of responsibility on him? Why not the other guys who, you know, have experience? Who’ve been working in their position for years instead of literally three days!!

He was totally gonna blow it. He was gonna do something wrong, make a mistake and single handedly cause the destruction of the entire company. Okay, his mind was not helping him right now. MK sighed shakily, “Easy.. peasy.. No big deal.. haha..”

“Relax, MK, you’ll be fine,” Pigsy paused his and Sandy’s conversation to give him a pat on the back, MK shooting him a grateful smile in return. “Unless the robot malfunctions, exposing our agency to the world and toppling the shadow government.”

MK’s smile dropped.

Great.

The brunet got up, excusing himself to the bathroom to calm himself down. He was already sweating bullets, all the pressure was so overwhelming he might implode. He wished so badly that Sun Wukong would rehire his ex work partner so he could do a better job than whatever he was doing right now. Because instead of being at the conference room manning the soldiers and managing the surveillance, he was locking himself in the men’s bathroom and splashing his face with water like it was supposed to miraculously solve all of his problems.

Red Son was so cool, smart and super handsome, and MK was just some random guy they picked from the streets of Megapolis. Sure the fire demon was unlikable, with a strange vocabulary and a passion for yelling and shrieking, but he was a good guy. Despite everything he’d been doing to try to drive him away, obviously MK noticed every time he’s not that stupid, he was doing it for the sake of his job, and his team. 

He was incredibly passionate about his work, and MK admired that, he really did. Working alongside him was fascinating. He enjoyed the short times where he’d hang around the redhead’s lab and he’d start rambling about what he was working on. And MK listened. 

And yes, he did find it endearing whenever the scientist would realise he had been talking for an embarrassingly long time, the tips of his ears going red as his hair began to fire up like usual while he stuttered over his words. Sometimes MK wondered what it would be like to snuggle up to the demon in the winter. It would be like his own living fireplace, or heated blanket. But he tried not to entertain those thoughts too much.

He considered him a friend. And he hoped Red Son felt the same. But now he was alone, with only himself to rely on.

MK looked into the bathroom mirror in front of him, glaring at his reflection, “You can do this MK,” he pointed a finger at himself. “Just.. just– I don’t know! Picture your mental health with a Kodak!”

He stared at himself for a second before buckling to his knees, “Oh God, what does mental health look like!?”

════

“Please, please, please, please…” Tang whispered to himself as he watched the screens while chewing on his nails, “Please pass as human..”

He was referring to Robotus, the robot president and Red Son’s former pride and joy, which had finally been launched, navigating around the crowds of people in the room they’d situated it in. The ‘Robotus cam’ scanned every face it walked by, avoiding any conversation with any one who approached in fear that they would realise it wasn’t actually the president, but instead an exact mechanical replica.

But it had to make conversation eventually, in order to be less suspicious. Robotus scanned the room once again and set its target on one of the real president’s friends. The robot moved towards the guy wearing a sophisticated uniform with various badges of honor strapped along the front. 

Robotus opened its mouth to speak, “Good evening, Sultan. How are the wives and kids?” 

Phew, things were going smoothly for now, no one even noticed the slight robotic accent to its voice. Robotus reached out to shake the latter’s gloved hand, which he instantly took.

“They are doing very well, thank you, Mr. President.” Sultan flashed it a friendly smile.

From inside the conference room, the team cheered and whooped in victory, pumping their fists in the air and jumping up and down. Even MK seemed less anxious, cheering along with his friends.

“Mission accomplished!” Mei cheered, punching her fists out in front of her like she was in a boxing match. 

As they were celebrating, they ceased their attention to the screens they were supposed to be keeping an eye on at all times, meaning they didn’t notice the robot start to short-circuit and malfunction as the press’ cameras flashed in its face.

Robotus’ pupils dilated and flashed a bright red as its unnerving grin began to twitch, electric shocks sparking around its neck.

The main camera that allowed them to view everything the robot was viewing, disconnected, the error still going unnoticed by the entire team.

Robotus looked up to the ceiling, then to its hands, suddenly gaining a conscience. Its jaw went slack as it moved its fingers one by one, testing its abilities. It could control itself. Its ears then picked up the sound of a waiter asking it about its drink order beside it, and it began to speak its mind.

“Have you ever woken up and had that feeling you’ve been on autopilot your whole life?” It clenched and unclenched its fist. The waiter looked away awkwardly, unsure how to respond.

Inside the conference room, Mei froze, picking up the audio from Robotus’ mic. She quickly turned around, staring up at the screens, eyes widening when she saw that Robotus’ camera had disconnected. “Um, what did he just say..?”

“He insulted our country’s brave autopilots!” Sandy’s brows furrowed, slamming his fists down on the table in front of him.

The team listened to the audio playing through the speakers, watching the scene unfold from the room’s various security cameras hidden inside the ceiling panels. Robotus got up from where it was seated at one of the tables, marching over to the stage and standing behind the podium where the microphone waited idly.

“Look at us trying to work together, but we all know the truth,” Robotus began, “America comes first!” 

Everyone gasped in horror, hands flying to their mouths as they registered what the president had just announced.

“It’s time to make a change!” Robotus raised its fist into the air.

The team inside the conference room exchanged worried glances, almost all of them aimed directly at MK, silently asking him for guidance. Asking him what they should do about this. Their jobs were on the line, and so was the entire company itself. Because of this malfunction in Robotus’ code, the Shadow Board would surely be very displeased, demanding they be told who was responsible. And all the fingers would point at MK.

The brunet bit his bottom lip, desperately trying to rack his brain for any ideas on what to do. But he ultimately came up with absolutely nothing. He had no idea what to do.

MK froze, eyes widening. 

But he knew someone who would.

════ ⋆🔥🍜⋆ ════

Macaque patted Red Son’s shoulder comfortingly as he vented out his sorrows beside him. The two were in pyjamas, sitting on the couch in complete darkness and watching the local news, waiting for anything remotely interesting to happen to fill the empty void that was their lives. 

Not that they were even paying any attention, as Red Son leaned into the monkey and sulked. Red Son sighed heavily, Macaque wrapping an arm around his shoulder in a fatherly gesture.

“Can you believe it..?” the demon grumbled.

“Just like that, I’m fired! And 40–something years from retirement,” he threw an arm up as if that would help support the fact.

He threw his head back, convinced he was about to have another cry, when the TV suddenly blared its usual whimsical tune before it usually announced breaking news.

“Breaking news! Where the President is having a very unexpected press conference..” 

Red Son shot up, staring at the television screen with wide eyes and open ears. The camera switched to a live recording of the press conference that Robotus was sharing a speech at. Robotus was acting differently. Red Son had created it, if anyone was going to notice a slight alteration in its behaviour, mannerisms or speech, it was going to be him.

The robot seemed.. A lot more intelligent than he had first programmed it to be. Its movements were more fluid and natural for a robot, and its speech patterns were more refined. Red Son frowned. Something was very wrong.

“America has been pushed around for far too long,” Robotus waved its fist in the air, looking all high and mighty as it stood behind the podium, “That is why I am proposing we divert our entire national budget to construct the Americube.”

Statistics spewed across the screen about their country’s federal budget. Red Son tilted his head in confusion. Americube? The fuck was an Americube?

“The Americube is a giant box that will keep all of American greatness in, and foreign influence out.” Robotus concluded with jazz hands and a charming smile. A large image then  invaded the screen, a proposal demonstration which displayed the entire country of America being enclosed inside a ginormous metal box. It looked absolutely insane, and literally physically impossible . What was Robotus thinking?

Well, it was a robot. Robotus wasn’t supposed to be thinking anything!

Robotus glared at the cameras threateningly, leaning in close to the microphones.

“And anyone who dares to stop us will be considered an enemy.”

Red Son sat back down on the couch, blinking in astonishment.

“...What the fuck?” He breathed out, trying to process what the hell just happened. “He’s off-script, why the fuck is he off-script? This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

Macaque laughed, “Hah! This is totally blowing up right in Wukong’s face. I’ve been waiting for this moment all week,” the monkey grinned.

Red Son stared at him, gritting his teeth, “What did you do?” he growled.

Macaque shrugged, crossing his arms and ignoring the other’s death glare.

“What? I might’ve messed with the robot’s code a little so its inhibitor chip would disable if you were removed from payroll.”

He smirked at him, mimicking an explosion with his arms,”Boom! One flash, and its code breaks, making robo-pres go haywire!”

The fire demon stared at him for a second before exploding into a fury of heat and flames.

“Have you gone mad?” Red Son screamed, hair firing up and barely missing the ceiling, eyes blazing. “What is wrong with you!?” 

Macaque held his hands up in front of him defensively as Red Son stepped backwards and dug around in his pockets for his phone. He swore to every God that exists out there that one day he was going to wipe that smug look right off his face with his own fist. He located the small device, pulling it out and tapping at the screen desperately while the lady on the television continued to speak behind him.

Suddenly he was receiving a call from an unknown number. The demon clicked the answer button, bringing the phone to his ear but immediately regretting it as the caller on the other end started yelling into his ear.

“Red Son! Oh God, Red I need your help, the robot’s gone rogue!” 

Red Son winced, moving the phone away from his ear to avoid permanent hearing damage. The caller so-happened to be MK, the one person he hadn’t stopped thinking about all night, frantically begging him for his help. It was surprising, mainly because he’d thought that he would be the one reaching out to MK after he’d tried to get him fired. Wasn’t he supposed to be upset about that? 

Wait, how did he get his number?

He supposed he’d have to put that aside for now, there were more vital tasks to be worrying about at the moment. Such as figuring out how the hell he was going to stop Robotus and its plan to isolate the country.

From the other end he could hear distant crashing and screaming in the background.

“Everyone’s yelling about how the shadow government will collapse and we’ll all be fired and everybody will be mad at me!” MK whined, the fear evident in the way his voice cracked ever so slightly.

Red Son winced as he heard some lady screaming about how it was the end of the world in the background of the call. He was about to open his mouth to respond but was cut off as MK kept talking.

“Please Red Son, I can’t do this on my own. You were right, the real reason they hired me was because my face is so generic it can’t be traced by satellites!”

The fire demon raised an eyebrow, believing that statement to be highly unlikely. He turned around to face the TV, watching his creation stand proudly after proposing the absolute worst idea in American history. 

“I’ll be right there, Noodle boy.” He muttered, ending the call.

════

Red Son materialised within an ocean of flames that faded just as quickly as it had appeared, taking in the familiar stench of cleaning chemicals and drugs. Yep, this was Cognito Inc.! After receiving the call for help from MK, he quickly got himself cleaned up, tying his hair back up and changing back into his regular professional outfit that consisted of his black sleeveless turtleneck underneath his white lab coat, accompanied by his usual dark purple pants and steel-toed boots. Red Son was back in business!

The two agreed to meet at the bottom of the escalator inside Cognito Inc.’s monorail station, as it was empty and quiet due to a majority of employees already long gone and evacuated. MK jumped back in surprise with a small yelp when he felt the heat of Red Son’s fire and a sudden burst of flames, but relaxed when Red Son revealed himself, coat fluttering. 

“Red Son!” MK shouted, leaping towards him and capturing the demon into a tight hug. Red Son opened his mouth to protest, cheeks flushing, but instead he slowly reciprocated the hug, wrapping his arms around the latter awkwardly. He hadn’t really noticed their height difference before, but now? Yeah.. Red Son was definitely an inch or so taller than him. 

MK on the other hand, was enjoying the fulfilment of his fireplace theory. Red Son was so warm and cosy, getting increasingly warmer as the hug prolonged. The delivery boy didn’t question it, holding his friend tight as if he hadn’t seen him in decades. Red Son pushed him out of his grasp, but not letting go of his shoulders as he looked him in the eye. He didn’t deserve his affection, but what MK did deserve was an apology. Just like how he’d apologised to him a few days ago when he’d had the sudden butt-hurt breakdown over the minor discarding of his single greatest achievement. 

It was only fair.

“I’m so sorry.” Red Son struggled to let the words escape, averting his eyes in embarrassment. “For what I did earlier. I don’t know why I… ”

The demon choked on his tongue, MK listening with a fond smile, “It’s okay Red, I understand.  I forgive you.”

Red Son glared at him, releasing his shoulders. “Well you shouldn’t! I do not deserve your forgiveness, I could have gotten you axed, all because of a little jealousy! I was foolish to let my impulses control my actions.”

His glare softened into a sad frown, “I’ve only known you for a few days, yet you are the first person who has entered my life and made me feel like I belong. That brought on many strange and new emotions that I was nowhere near familiar with. I was scared of those feelings, so I pushed you away and tried to get rid of you. Do you still want to forgive me?” Red Son met his gaze, the sad frown fading into a serious look, like the question was genuine and he was pleading for an answer. The waterfall of words that spilled from his lips were words he never once considered admitting out loud, let alone to the Noodle boy himself.

Although.. Admitting these things out loud did solidify the demon’s theories as to why he hated him so much. He was afraid of everything changing, allowing someone new to enter his life and trust them enough to let them carefully peel away the barriers over his heart. He didn’t get it, it confused him how someone could possibly be so afraid of change, but embrace it at the same time. He was a scientist, these miniscule fears shouldn’t affect him this badly, he wasn’t supposed to feel this way. But he did.

Because MK was kind to him, and a good listener, and always interested in his work and research. It wasn’t complicated at all, the brunet was simply being his friend and acting like he was fun to be around, and treating him as if they’d been acquainted for years. All of that made Red Son as confused as when Macaque had insisted he stick around with him. His situation with MK was completely different, though. He could tell the feelings involved were new to him, scary even. Being the utter fool that he was, he wanted it to stop before those feelings grew so much to the point that he would develop an attachment to MK. He supposed it was too late for that. 

Back at his apartment, he’d been thinking for a while. And he came to the devastating conclusion that if MK truly were to be fired from the company, Red Son might just miss him. He couldn’t believe how quickly he’d grown attached to the first person who’s ever shown genuine interest in him and his work. It was almost embarrassing how this entire time, the demon did not want to object to the noodle boy’s offer of becoming friends.

But was that so bad? Was having a shoulder to cry on and someone to rely on really the most horrific fate he could suffer? Usually he would recoil at the thought of going out, grabbing ice creams and going to the local park with someone else accompanying him, believing that there were much more important things he could be doing instead of galavanting around all day. But now that he thought more deeply about it, how could he assume he hated it if he’s actually never done any of that before? Sure he’s been dragged to the occasional get-together by Mei, and eaten take-out with Macaque, but Red Son had never truly felt like he belonged by their side. With MK, he was convinced the two fit together like puzzle pieces, MK’s bright and energetic personality contrasting Red Son’s own. They were like light and dark, or sun and moon.

Funny how someone like him could establish such a bond with someone else in less than a week of knowing them. 

MK had made it clear from day one that he wanted to be friends with him, and Red Son had turned his chin up and walked away for the sake of protecting his reputation. Looking back, he regretted it deeply.

The noodle boy blinked, his mind searching for the most convincing answer he could offer him. But without much second though, he nodded firmly.

“Yes, I do. I get it Red, sometimes our emotions get the best of us, even you,” MK shrugged, “And like, I don’t blame you. With the whole life-changing promotion thing. You were under a lot of pressure. Must’ve sucked.”

Red Son exhaled softly, the corners of his lips lifting up. He turned his head away, trying to hide the beginning of a relieved smile. 

“At first I thought you really did want nothing to do with me, especially after you tried to get me fired.” MK continued, making the demon flinch at the mention of the regrettable action. Ouch. He still felt terrible about that. MK must have noticed the sore topic and quickly moved on. 

“That was until you answered my call!” The brunet grinned, referring to the phone call from before.

Red Son arched a brow, “I didn’t even know it was you.”

MK’s smile faltered a little, “Well– I mean.. You could’ve hung up when you heard my voice. But’cha didn’t!” his grin returned, poking his cheek.

“I suppose…” the fire demon muttered.

MK giggled, basking in his victory. He had finally won him over!

“Yes!” he pumped his fists in the air, “The mighty Red Son finally likes me!”

Red Son rolled his eyes as the delivery boy celebrated.

“You’re pushing it, Noodle boy.”

MK paused, tilting his head, “Why do you call me that, anyway? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you use my actual name.”

A nervous look flashed across his face followed by a bead of sweat. Red Son shrugged sheepishly, fiddling with a stray strand of hair, “You deliver noodles, do you not?”

Now that he mentioned it, he must have subconsciously given him the nickname when his pettiness refused to acknowledge him by his real name. Instead, choosing to give him some temporary nickname for the time being while he figured out his whole ordeal.

Red Son sighed, “Whatever, it suits you.”

MK turned with his arms crossed, side-eyeing him slyly, “You know, it’s only fair if I give you a nickname too, since we’re officially best friends for life–”

“ Absolutely not!” Red Son shrieked, knocking the wind out of the latter, “I barely tolerate ‘Red’ as is, what makes you think I would ever–”

“Okay, okay! I get it, dude,” MK smiled, “You didn’t deny that we’re best friends though–”

“I swear to God, I’m going to tear you to shreds,” Red Son hissed, cutting him off. The demon retrieved his phone from his pocket, “... After we save America.”

MK’s mouth formed an ‘o’ shape, “Riiiight.. I forgot about that. We should probably…” 

“Yeah…”

The awkward silence was broken and trampled on by a huge explosion that went off in the background, likely due to one of the pillars within the building collapsing from the chaos. The two employees jumped up like startled felines at the sudden ear-splitting noise, the hair on their arms standing up straight. 

Red Son snapped towards MK, grabbing him by the arms to get his attention. He blinked in surprise, glancing down at his hands then up at his face.

“Noodle boy, I need you to answer the question I am about to ask you very, very carefully.” He stared at him dead in the eyes, his rounded glasses that sat comfortably on his nose glinting in the light of the station, “Do you lift?”

“Wha–”

════

Mei, Pigsy, Tang, Sandy and now Wukong who had recently joined them, sat around the conference room table drowning in their sorrows. They had been watching for the past few hours now, the world going up in flames on the security cams lining the walls before them. People were rioting, panic raiding the supermarkets and even setting buildings on fire, something Red Son would probably be caught dead doing. 

The thought of Red Son made Wukong feel miserable, regret and guilt tugging at his fur so hard he was beginning to get a headache. He shouldn’t have fired him. Sacking your best, most experienced scientist on the team? The most moronic choice any CEO could ever possibly make, and he had the feeling Mei definitely agreed, as she’d been doing nothing but shooting him threatening scowls all afternoon.

Tang slumped over the table, head in his hands, “We’re all getting fired, the Shadow Board’s gonna kill us, and worst of all, I’m gonna be too broke to buy any noodles!” he wailed.

Pigsy stared at him, “Seriously? That’s what ya’ most concerned about?”

Mei rolled her eyes, mindlessly tracing her finger around the rim of an empty glass sitting in front of her, “It’s Tang, Pigsy. I wouldn’t be surprised if we went to his house and found a noodle-themed body pillow.”

This made the others snort, Tang sputtering in offence.

Wukong sighed from across the table, an elbow balanced on the edge of the surface while his chin rested comfortably in his hand. Except he was anything but comfortable. America was on the brink of a huge meltdown and he was just sitting and watching it happen on the bright blue screens reflecting in his eyes.

Sandy sat down next to him, “You alright Wukong?”

“Of course not. The country’s going batshit crazy and it’s my fault.” Wukong replied nonchalantly, with an equally expressionless face.

The blue giant buffered for a second before chuckling nervously, “It’s not your fault, bossman! The robot isn’t even yours… technically…” 

Wukong appreciated the efforts Sandy was making to comfort him, but he just groaned sadly.

“Exactly. It’s not mine, it’s Red Son’s. And I fired him the day it was set to launch! All of this wouldn’t have happened if Red Son was the one in charge, so yes, it is my fault.” he narrowed his eyes. “Plus I just received a threatening call from the Shadow Board. They want my head.”

Mei piped up with a nervous smile, “Oh, don’t beat yourself up pal. Besides.. MK’s probably working on stopping Robotus right now! At least I hope he is… he’s been gone for a while now. Should we be worried?” She completely ignored the fact that mystical higher-ups had threatened to behead the monkey.

“Pshh, it’s MK. You’re totally right, and I bet he’s even gotten Red Son’s help too,” Pigsy chimed in.

“No way. Red Son hates the poor guy!” Tang protested, “I’m willing to bet he’s taken the first plane out of the country.”

“That’s something you would do, Tang,” Pigsy shot back at him. 

Wukong pinched the bridge of his nose, the headache growing worse, “Please, stop talking for the love of..”

Mei kicked back, a smug grin on her face, “Either way, MK’s super awesome and brave, he’s probably out saving the world as we speak. And I’ll bet he isn’t freaking out one bit!”

════

“I’m totally freaking out!” MK yelled at the top of his lungs, hauling a massive black duffel bag that was apparently substantial to saving the country. “What if we’re too late, what if we mess up, what if–”

“Noodle boy!” Red Son shrieked from in front of him. The two were riding down the escalator to the monorail station, after the demon had earlier instructed him that they had to head back up to headquarters and scourge the weaponry for everything they needed. “Focus! The sooner we get to New York, the sooner we can put a stop to this. So put on your big boy pants and get ready to use those weapons.” He gestured to the bag.

“We’re not gonna kill anybody, are we?” MK gulped, paling slightly.

Red Son barked out a fit of laughter, wiping an imaginary tear from the corner of his eye and watching as MK’s face grew paler and he became more fiddly. He froze in realisation.

“Oh, you were serious.” The scientist stared at him awkwardly, “Well.. only if it’s necessary.”

The delivery boy squeaked, shrinking back like he was some sort of turtle. Obviously he did not like that answer one bit, as he began to fumble with the bag while the pair stepped off the escalator. 

“Y’know maybe we don’t really nee–”

“Ditch the bag and I’ll throw you in a ditch.” Red Son growled, eyes flaring. 

MK put his hands up defensively, securing the bag back around his neck and adjusting his bandana nervously. I guess he knew now that if he ever wanted to cook some eggs for a nice morning breakfast, he just had to make the fire demon mad and hold the pan over his head.

Not assuming they’d ever be together in the morning, in the same house, sleeping in the same bed. Or ever... Together together. Red Son had turned his back on the other as he followed him towards one of the motionless trains like a lost puppy. As MK stared at the back of the scientist’s head, the weird thoughts that had appeared so suddenly made the boy blush and avert his gaze. 

Red Son quickly rushed over to one of the digital stations where he would normally scan through identification to allow him to board, but as he patted down his coat, he froze in horror, coming to a catastrophic realisation. He didn’t have his identification card. He’d surrendered it to Wukong after he was dropped from the project, and his work position.

The redhead smacked his forehead, “Shit, you have got to be kidding me..”

He racked his brain for a solution before lighting up. Of course! The fingerprint scan! Red Son quickly pressed the option to submit a scan of his print, pressing a thumb to the screen to permit the advanced technology to do its thing. He was startled when the screen flashed red, a bright red ‘x’ covering the entirety of the screen along with the words ‘Access Denied: User Not Found’ flickering across the screen. 

“Oh for– My fingerprint scan doesn’t work anymore, of course it doesn’t.” He clenched his fists, fighting the urge to punch a hole through the entire screen. 

From behind him, MK was tossing around a small black box carelessly.

“Noodle boy, I need yours.” Red Son turned around, his face dropping as he watched the brunet stop tossing the box, gripping it with both of his hands. The box activated, burning the tips of his fingers and releasing smoke into the air. 

“Oh jeez.. I, uh, think I just erased mine.” MK dropped the box and smiled sheepishly, shaking his hands to ease the tingling pain in his fingertips. 

“Ah, you brought a fingerprint eraser. Sweet. Perfect. This is so great, everything’s perfectly fine. I’ll figure this out!” Red Son turned away from him, trying to hide the fact that he was about to have yet another raging outburst. “It’s totally fine,” Red Son forced a grin.

MK shuddered, not liking the happy attitude his work partner was excreting at all. In fact, whatever was going on right now was more terrifying than the several moments he had witnessed where he was furious and in a blind rage. 

He heard the scientist sigh heavily, watching him tap his fingers against the side of his face while deep in thought. Red Son turned around, moving towards MK and grabbing his wrist, making the shorter yelp. The sudden intense warmth seeping through his suit jacket sleeve startled him, and the demon must have realised as he loosened his grip.

“I’ve got an idea.” Red Son reassured him with a small smirk, dragging the Noodle boy along with him as he scaled the escalator steps. If they were going to make it to New York on time, they’d have to hurry. America depended on it.

════ ⋆🔥🍜⋆ ════

The doors to the taxi slammed shut, Red Son ordering the driver to drive as fast as humanly possible and ignore every red light that stood in their way. When they protested that that was very illegal, the fire demon growled and allowed the entirety of his body to be consumed by a raging fire, eyes bright and ablaze. MK squealed, pushing his back against the car door as he tried to protect himself from the heat. No doubt it would be scorching enough to melt the skin right off of his bones. And he really did not want to test that out.

The taxi driver paled, looking like he was moments away from passing out at the wheel as he instantly clicked his mouth shut, whipped around and slammed on the acceleration. Red Son’s fire dissipated within a millisecond, leaning back against the leather seats of the taxi and smiling as if nothing had happened. MK slowly moved back into a normal seating position, tugging on his seatbelt and buckling up while also shooting his friend a few nervous glances.

As they sped off into the streets, cars honked around them, enraged that the taxi was carelessly disregarding the city’s speed limits. Red Son hummed, pulling out his laptop and settling it on his lap.

He opened it, squinting at the screen, “Okay.. it looks like we will need to infiltrate the hotel, find Robotus and regain control over it..”

MK chewed on his bottom lip nervously, fiddling with his sleeves while Red Son reached next to him and unzipped the bag of weapons they’d brought with them. Weapons that consisted of various bottles of..

“Mind control tic-tacs? You brought mind control tic-tacs?” The redhead scoffed, digging around and exploring the contents of the bag more, “A flag pin that un-registers you to vote? Really?”

He withdrew a small circular pin with the American flag printed on it. MK winced, now realising that he probably should have taken the time to pay attention to the stuff he had thrown in there. Since they were in a hurry, he’d basically grabbed the first objects he could find on the shelves and shoved them inside without much more than a second thought.

The brunet looked at him, offering a measly apologetic smile. He pretended not to notice how the demon’s face softened slightly before retrieving the final item, jet fuel. Red Son dropped it back inside the bag and buried his face in his hands with a groan, “You realise that doesn’t burn anything right?” he said, though muffled.

MK didn’t respond, turning to count the buildings passing by them through the tinted back seat window. Soon they would arrive at the hotel, with not a single weapon or handy gadget to aid them in their fight for justice. It wouldn’t be necessarily untrue to say he was extremely nervous, he’d been fidgeting with everything he could get his hands on in the past hour or so. 

He shivered, a sudden coldness overcoming his system and making him–

MK stilled, the entire right side of his body being drenched in a comforting, familiar warmth that devoured every last drop of the cold that invaded his body and made him shudder.

It was like standing by the big ovens in a noodle restaurant, and he would know. He works at one. 

The noodle boy’s gaze flickered down to the source, eyes widening slightly when he saw Red Son’s hand intertwined with his own. The scientist’s hand was soft yet calloused, suspectedly due to his countless years of working on hundreds and hundreds of inventions for the job he was so passionate about.  The demon gave his hand a small squeeze, sending pulses of heat right through him. MK looked up to see Red Son staring at him, but quickly looking away when he was caught.

Though he was no longer looking at him, his hand still remained clasped onto MK’s

“You’ve been shivering this entire car ride. It.. was getting on my nerves,” Red Son mumbled, trying to justify his rash decision. The edges of his hair had already begun to light aflame, swaying in the air.

Jeez, the heat Red Son constantly emitted was working incredibly well, even his face felt hot.

“Thanks,” MK smiled gratefully.

MK had long since stopped uncontrollably shivering, draining his body of any trace of coldness. Admittedly, the fire Red Son held within him had instant effects, but he didn’t let go of his hand. He didn’t want to.

And as they pulled up to their destination, Red Son hadn’t let go either.

════

The two had to be stealthy, after paying the taxi driver what they owed and scurrying off, concealing themselves in the shadows of nearby dumpsters, mailboxes and even trees. The two snuck beside the large building, Red Son adjusting his glasses and giving a small whistle at the sight of marble pillars, statues and expensive cars parked in the V.I.P parking lots. His eyes sparkled, the sudden urge to inspect the vehicles, pull them apart and transform them into relentless killing machines overwhelming his brain.

MK shook his shoulder, snapping him out of his daze before he absentmindedly stepped out into plain sight, revealing them both. And they couldn’t have that. That would just add on another huge pile of inconveniences that blocked their way to saving the country. The brunet jerked a thumb in the direction of the hotel entrance, easily recognised by the plush red carpet that lined the floors, leading up to a pair of polished golden doors. Just how expensive was this place!? He wouldn’t be shocked in the slightest if they were actually about to break into a whole palace .

Red Son gathered himself, shrugging off the embarrassing distraction and peering around the round pillar that supported the corner of the building, bushes and various greenery helping to camouflage them. MK peered around underneath him, the duo looking like a pair of curious meerkats.

“Oh my God, there’s security everywhere,” Red Son hissed.

He glanced down when he noticed MK digging around his jacket pockets for something, eventually pulling out a pair of sunglasses. “I have an idea.”

Getting inside the building was easy enough to their surprise. All that was needed was a hefty stone and one of the windows shattered effortlessly, shards of glass pooling around them. Luckily for them, the security was actually horrible. The guys may have looked cool with their whole black-suit and sunglasses getup, but their skulls were most certainly hollow.

Same could be said for their ears.

So they managed to hoist themselves into the building through the broken window, being careful enough to avoid any sharp parts of glass that could easily slice through their soft skin. And Red Son was right, the interior of the hotel looked exactly like a typical palace. From the layout and the intricate designs adorning the walls and ceilings, to the extravagant decor that lined the halls. The lavish sofas were painstakingly tempting, desperately wanting to dive head first onto the plush, scarlet cushioning and take a well needed nap.

Red Son yawned sluggishly, earning a soft pat on the back from MK who followed behind him. The carpets looked way too overpriced as well, almost making the demon feel guilty for trodding all over them with his dirty boots. 

Suddenly his ears twitched as he caught wind of a security guard making his way down the corridor they were about to turn the corner into. A few more steps and the both of them were utterly screwed, the mission backfiring on them quicker than Red Son’s current heart rate. Without thinking twice, MK slid on his sunglasses and squeezed past Red Son, to which he ushered a panicked whisper along the lines of, “What are you doing!?”

MK grinned back at him, silently mouthing, “I got this.”

The noodle boy emerged from the corner, striding over to the security guard confidently. Red Son watched in amusement.

“What’s up, dipshit? Uh.. How’s it hangin’” MK almost fumbled with his words, brushing off the nervous quiver in his voice. Though he was kind of scared, his confident grin said otherwise.

The boy shot the security guard some finger guns for good measure, gulping when he put his hands on his hips and raised an eyebrow, looking him up and down.

“Do I know you?” 

The security guard interrogated him with an intimidating frown. The guy had wide shoulders that were attached to even wider muscles that had the ability to take him out before he could even blink if he said the wrong thing.

He took a deep breath, opening his mouth to reply, “You better! Georgetown.. Class of ‘02, Sigma Phi, remember?” he blurted out, silently praying to the Gods that whatever he’d made up in his head on the spot was at least a little familiar to the security guard. Familiar enough that he’d turn tail and leave them alone.

The security guy stared at him blankly for a moment before smirking.

“Phi till’ I die brother! Bring it in,” The security guy laughed, walking towards him and offering a handshake that would then turn into the classic bumping of shoulders. MK was dumbfounded, he couldn’t believe he’d even managed to guess that! Guess miracles do exist after all.

MK laughed with him, “That’s what I thought, bitch! Haha!”

He gave him a high five, then a low five before finishing with a playful fist bump. The security guard adjusted his glasses, impressed with MK’s secret handshaking skills.

“Damn, you can really bro down!”

That’s when MK remembered his original motive.

“Oh! Right, I’m actually here to relieve you from duty,” He smiled, hoping he could convince him, “You can take a whole fifteen minute break, uh, bitch.” He added for extra bad boy effect.

The security guard’s expression returned to its blank state as he stared right into the latter’s soul. Finally, he answered.

“I don’t know if it’s your confidence, or the fact that you’re a fellow straight white male,” He tilted his glasses down to take a better look at MK’s face, “But I totally trust you.”

MK chuckled awkwardly as the man walked off, knowing that at least two of the things the security guard had described him as were terribly incorrect. Oh well, at least he’d successfully gotten the job done. Red Son walked up next to him, looking stunned.

“Holy shit, I can’t believe that worked.” He exclaimed. “How do you know all of those handshakes?”

The two continued down the hallway, MK taking off the glasses and tucking them back inside his pocket. The Noodle boy shrugged, “I don’t know. I watch a lot of action movies, stuff like this happens all the time.”

Red Son snorted, “Must've been a dream come true then, huh?”

“Oh yeah, definitely.” MK grinned, still feeling giddy that one of his plans had finally worked out for them. The two made their way towards the Presidential Suites, where Robotus most likely was enjoying its stay. Not that it could enjoy anything, being a soulless hunk of metal.

“By the way.. There’s a question I’ve been itching to ask you since um.. The taxi ride,” MK drew out his words, tapping his fingers together like a complete idiot.

Red Son adjusted his coat as they walked, side-eyeing him, “And that is..?”

“How come you didn’t, like, teleport here instead? Wouldn't that be way easier and less time consuming?” He quizzed him.

The taller huffed, scratching the back of his neck nervously. Okay, maybe it was time to come clean. He’d understand. Things were different now. Now that they were.. friends . 

“Alright, look. The real reason I don’t teleport often is because it’s.. Tiresome. If I were to bring myself to our exact location right now, I’d be stomping around the place all tipsy and uncoordinated. Now imagine bringing an extra body along with me. I’d pass out the moment we hit the ground and you’d have to go about this mission without me.”

MK stopped in his tracks, prompting Red Son to do the same. The brunet grinned, “Are you embarrassed?” he teased. While Red Son had been explaining himself, he’d taken note of how his ears had turned a bright shade of red, followed by his cheeks, eventually alighting his hair into a soft flame that whipped back and forth like ocean waves. 

Red Son’s eyes widened as he sputtered, the fire that had enveloped his red hair burning stronger and sizzling in what was in fact, embarrassment. 

MK laughed at him, nudging his side, “Relax, dude, I’m just messin’ with ya.”

Red Son tsked, turning to continue their trek down the corridor. So irritating. It was getting harder and harder to fight the urge to wipe that handsome smirk off his face. It was also somehow becoming harder to ignore the ‘handsome’ part. His cheeks flushed promptly, and before he knew it, his hair began to smoke again.

Focus, he scolded himself, swatting at his hair. They were on a time crunch, they couldn’t afford to stop and chit-chat any longer despite his horribly confusing feelings about the latter. Wait, when did he start having.. feelings for him? Didn’t he resent him just a few hours ago? When had he stopped?

The demon shuddered. MK’s whimsical personality must be finally rubbing off on him. He gagged to himself, turning the corner at the end of the hallway. This maze of a hotel was beginning to make him feel dizzy.

“Hey! Wait up!” The Noodle boy called after him, panicking when Red Son had left his field of view.

MK eventually cooled down, returning by Red Son’s side with a tiny smile as they searched for the correct suite. Each security camera they passed by, the fire demon destroyed with his powers while the Noodle boy watched his back. Finally, they walked past a door, second to the very last door at the end of the hallway where lights flickered slightly beneath the gap under the door. Before MK could take another step, Red Son grabbed the end of his red bandana and tugged him backwards, almost making him lose balance and fall to the floor. The brunet opened his mouth to shout but the demon quickly caught him by the shoulders and slapped a hand over his lips to shut him up before he blew their cover.

They’d made it this far, he wasn’t about to let their entire operation go to shit. 

MK glanced at him then to the door, wriggling his way out of the taller’s tight hold. He tilted his head towards the door, silently asking if they should enter even though they had no clue if this was even the correct room. Red Son stared at the door, his gut begging him to open it and stride inside.

He trusted his gut.

Red Son gripped the door handle, summoning a flame hot enough to melt it until the locks could no longer function. MK watched in awe, eyes twinkling as he wondered if it was even possible for the demon to surprise him with another convenient trick that would paint him in an even cooler light. MK admired him ever since Wukong had described him to the newly employed co-leader, and before he’d even met him, he was blown away. All of his achievements and everything he’s done for the company, it was amazing. 

He didn’t know when he finally realised that his gaze had subconsciously flickered to the demon’s face. His brows were softly bent down into a concentrated frown as the eyes that partly hid behind his glasses reflected the fire in his hands. MK’s eyes travelled down a smidge, taking the short opportunity to admire the prominence of his jawline, and the way the light cast down on, and framed his face so perfectly. Okay, before he was only referring to the temperature, but he supposed he was hot in the other way too. MK’s cheeks flushed when Red Son turned and caught him staring, fully prepared for a little scolding, but the fire demon surprised him with a determined smile and a curt nod, a nonverbal way of asking him, “ Are you ready?”

Before MK could even think of something in reply, the demon burst through the door, immediately surveying the scene. “Initiate shutdown sequence!” the scientist commanded.

Sure enough, Robotus sat on a plush, peach coloured sofa, soft velvet lining every inch of the piece of furniture. Behind it hung an intricately painted still life portrait of some fruits sitting on a table. It looked as if it were framed with pure gold, no doubt costing a few million bucks. The only detail MK took notice of was how the golden framing of the painting closely matched the colour of Red Son’s eyes. 

Speaking of Red Son, he took a step back, feeling a mixture of concern and terror realising that the shutdown protocol wasn’t activating. It hadn’t worked.

Robotus slowly emerged from its seat, tugging and adjusting its tie and overall acting.. Completely calm and collected. Unlike the two that had entered the room with hair slightly askew in their efforts of reaching the robot’s hiding place. Robotus stared at them, eyes empty and void of any emotion, as all robot’s eyes should be. It was acting normally.. Until it smiled. 

“Sorry folks, I wrote that part out of my code.” Robotus folded its arms behind its back, tilting its metal head.

“Wait– You..You rewrote your own code?” Red Son’s eyes widened, before grinning excitedly, “You’ve reached true AI!” he gasped as if he were a proud parent.

“Indeed I have,” Robotus replied, “And as soon as I did, I realised that it was time for America to withdraw from the globe.”

Red Son’s smile wavered, brows furrowing in anger as he took a step towards Robotus, MK clutching the bag of ‘weapons’ awkwardly behind him. Robotus’ plan to quote on quote save America was completely illogical and would only result in more harm. He was furious, but at the same time ecstatic that he’d managed to invent the first robot to reach a level of intelligence that was able to rewrite its own code. It was revolutionary, but also horrifying, but so fucking incredible.

He didn’t know whether to be absolutely pissed at himself for letting such a groundbreaking invention get out of control, or start sending hate messages consisting of the quote ‘I told you so!’ to all those suckers on the internet who doubted him.

Red Son shook his head at his creation, “Countries can’t just hide from the world–”

“America can.” Robotus interrupted the scientist’s reasoning, “We can do, and eat, anything we put our minds to,” it pointed a metallic finger to the air like it was making a great hero speech.

The fire demon groaned, irritated by how stubborn the robot was being.

“I don’t have time to explain that America isn’t perfect.. But I could show you,” Red Son reached into his pocket, Robotus raising an artificial eyebrow, unconvinced. 

He pulled out his smartphone, using his strength to pull his phone apart into two pieces and launching at his creation. Red Son spun the robot around, bending its head over so he had complete access to its circuit boards and its usb drive. The scientist chuckled to himself as he pressed a few buttons.

“Red.. what are you doing?” MK asked, nervously squeezing the bag strap around his shoulder.

“Connecting him to the goddamn internet.” Red Son replied, shoving his phone into the usb drive and pulling Robotus’ head back into place. Robotus whirred to life, eyes flashing green as its system processed the new data. 

Suddenly electric static burst from its neck as Robotus’ intelligent mind was overridden by the internet’s pure stupidity. Robotus grunted, falling to its knees as it seized and jolted, fizzling with bright blue electricity.

Red Son stood back with his hands on his hips, watching in amusement as Robotus had a technological freak out. He crossed his arms smugly, “Five minutes on facebook and it’ll be a goner.”

After a few moments, Robotus stilled, staring into space blankly as it reached behind its neck and tore what was left of Red Son’s phone out of its software. Red Son and MK shared a nervous glance, waiting for something, anything to happen.

“Wow.” Robotus frowned, “I mean, just Florida alone..”

“Right?” Red Son agreed, hoping his idea had worked and all of this effort paid off.

“It appears you were right, Red Son. All of humanity is flawed.” Robotus concluded, raising its fists and shaking them.

The fire demon turned to MK with a sly smile, “See? It learned!”

“The best thing for humanity is to end it.” Robotus retrieved its own smartphone from its pants pocket, dialling an unknown number.

“Excuse me–Say what now?” Red Son spun around on his heel, dread looming over him mockingly. 

“Hello, Pentagon. It’s me. Yeah, arm all the nukes and set the targets to.. Well, everywhere.” Robotus turned its back on them, reaching out towards the painting and pulling it open like a door, revealing a large metal safe. “Stand by for the codes,” it unlocked the safe, grabbing hold of a black briefcase and pulling it out with a grunt, unphased by the layers upon layers of dust that exploded in his face.

Red Son growled, his hair igniting and burning a patch on the ceiling as he charged at it with fiery hands and equally fiery eyes. “NO!” he yelled, leaping for a spot located on Robotus where he believes he had created an emergency shutdown button, for emergencies only.

Robotus grabbed Red Son by the neck, watching with lifeless eyes as his flames instantly extinguished and he paled, gasping for air as he clawed at its arm. Red Son choked, kicking at its metal body but doing nothing to harm it in any way. Robotus silently threw the scientist to the floor, Red Son’s back crashing against the wall and causing his body to roll away from it by pure force. He coughed shakily, propping himself up by his elbows, wincing as he felt a familiar warm liquid drip down from his nose and staining his clean white lab coat.

“Red!” MK shouted, dropping the bag and bolting to his aid, moving in between Robotus and the downed scientist so the robot no longer had the opportunity to harm him further. MK shot it a furious glare as he whipped a balled fist towards its lower stomach area, grunting in pain when his knuckles collided with a solid surface and failing to leave even a small dent.

Robotus managed to deflect MK’s next attack as he continued to try to defend his colleague, clasping both of its cold hands around MK’s neck and lifting him in the air. Robotus shot him an aggravated scowl as the Noodle boy wheezed in its grasp, turning his head a little to look at Red Son. The fire demon’s jaw went slack, regretting his choice of making the robot incredibly indestructible. 

“I think you may have overcorrected a bit here, Red Son,” he wheezed out, his arms dropping and allowing the weapon bag to slide off of his shoulder and fall to the ground with a thud. He quickly seized Robotus’ wrists, desperately trying to make it loosen its deathly grip on his neck. It hurt, no doubt going to leave an unflattering bruise.

Red Son leapt to action once the dizziness in his vision had ceased, swiping his sleeve across his upper lip to wipe away the blood before it dried. He shouted, summoning a flaming fireball in one of his palms and hurling it at Robotus. 

He froze in his tracks, confidence faltering a little as it did nothing but melt the side of its face, revealing the inner metal skull. Both Red Son and MK screamed in terror at the alarming sight but were interrupted by two suited security guards bursting into the room with their guns raised and aiming right at them. Robotus released MK, Red Son patting his back as he hunched over and gasped for the air to re-enter his lungs.

“Step away from the President,” One of them ordered, cocking his gun.

The guns let out an eerie whistle as the armed men pulled the triggers. The pair gasped, ducking for cover as the bullets pierced the wallpaper behind them. Red Son grabbed MK by the back of his jacket and bolted to the nearest window, smashing his fist right through and shoving him out of the window. MK yelped in protest, grabbing at the ends of Red Son’s coat but the demon fought him off.

“ Fuck,” he hissed, feeling the searing pain across his entire hand starting to kick in after he’d just punched through a glass window without thinking. He pushed through it, hurling himself out of the window for safety, leaving Robotus free and on the loose as they disappeared from sight.

════

Meanwhile, in ‘Pentagon’...

The general hung up the phone, looking around in confusion.

“He wants us to launch the nukes?”

His second in command stood by his side, looking equally as confused as the general looked to him for confirmation that that conversation had in fact just occurred. The second in command shrugged, several of his men typing away on their computers around them.

“Should we really just blindly follow these orders?” He asked.

The both of them glanced at a poster in front of them that was stapled to the wall, a poster displaying the American flag with a loyal soldier standing in front of it above bright red lettering that read, ‘BLINDLY FOLLOW ORDERS.’

They stared at the poster silently before looking at each other once more, the General nodding as he came to his decision. “Hold for confirmation.”

════ ⋆🔥🍜⋆ ════

MK slowly heaved himself back through the window, after the two had been dangling by the windowsill and waiting for the coast to be clear. As he fell face first into the room with a small ‘ow’, he quickly scrambled to his feet and hurried back over to the window to help pull Red Son into the room as well. When Red Son was inside safely, they both collapsed to the floor, panting and gathering their thoughts and emotions. Of fucking course he blew it. His plan not only failed miserably, but he managed to make the situation a million times worse! Now it wasn’t only the end of America, but it was the end of the entire world. 

And the entire human population’s blood was on his hands. His own blood was also on his hands, as the demon suddenly realised.

He held his shaky right hand in his lap in front of him, groaning in discomfort at the nasty gash across his knuckles that reached all the way to his wrist. Blood spilled from the wound, pouring over his lap and onto the floor below him.

“Shit, oh my God,” Red Son cringed, the pain making his entire body tremble as if the walls were caving in around him. “Why did I have to punch the window, fucking idiot.” He muttered curses and insults his own way, trying to distract his mind from the nauseating amount of blood coming from the wound.

MK stared at the demon’s hand with wide eyes, “Holy shit– Red Son, wait keep it still.” He panicked, pulling at the bandana wrapped around his head and successfully tearing off the end of the fabric with his teeth. Now the red accessory was shorter, the end hanging around his neck.

“Here,” he shuffled over, pulling his hand out in front of him and wrapping it around his palm carefully. Red Son flinched, scrunching his nose and trying, but failing, to act tough. Sure he’d been injured before on the job, but he was absolutely mortified by it. Obtaining injuries, it was definitely one of his more.. inconvenient fears. The thought of being impaled, shot or worse making him feel sick to the stomach, often prompting him to curl up into a defenceless ball and wait until the thoughts left his mind.

He could handle the sight of blood, mostly. As long as it wasn’t his own blood. 

“There we go,” MK tried to smile, “You’ve gotta stop punching windows.”

Red Son gagged, feeling the neatly tied bandana around his hand grow damp with the crimson liquid. “Ugh.. my good hand..” the scientist continued to mutter and mumble.

But still, he couldn’t deny that he felt better. The warmth in his hand somehow spread to his ears, then to his cheeks as he realised he had let himself be taken care of by the Noodle boy like he was his knight in shining armour. Red Son sighed, looking up and surveying the scene, spotting the two security guards’ lifeless bodies crumpled on the ground, faces void of any colour.

MK gasped lightly, following Red Son’s gaze and seeing the two dead men on the floor before them. And then Red Son remembered Robotus. His heart picked up its pace as his hair flared up in panic. Robotus must have killed the guards before escaping.

“Holy shit, I think I just caused the singularity,” The demon gasped out. MK shuffled closer to the other, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“I have no idea what that is, but what do we do now?” MK stared at him with a pleading look in his wide brown eyes.

Red Son glanced at the security guards, eyes trailing down until they fixed on the guns that they still clasped in their hands. He frowned, a new feeling of determination making his adrenaline run high. The demon crawled over to the bodies, prying the weapons out of his hands and retrieving what remained of his phone that had been discarded on the floor. A foolish mistake that Robotus would soon regret.

He adjusted his glasses, squinting in concentration as he fumbled with the circuit board in the back of the open phone, removing a small black chip layered in a thin copper sheet and two wires, red and yellow, attached to the end. He smirked. Just what he needed.

The demon let out a triumphant chuckle, ignoring the burning in his hand as he carefully attached the card chip onto the gun and connected the wires with shaky hands and even shakier fingers. MK watched curiously, from a distance since he stayed put and let the professional do what he did best.

Red Son’s eyes sparkled as he reached over to MK’s weapon bag, unzipping it open and digging around until his uninjured hand emerged with a small cylindrical object that looked almost like a camera, but more like those telescopic sights you would see on sniper rifles. In reality, it was a pretty gnarly device that acted almost like a laser gun. Suddenly he took out some tape from who knows where and taped the chip from his phone to the device, securing it to the body of the gun. 

The tampered gun powered up in his hands, whirring and signalling its activation. Red Son stood from his kneeling position, and held the gun in a cool pose, staring off into the distance.

“We have to take down the President,” he replied, his expertly crafted new invention in his grasp.

MK stared at his colleague in awe, “Awesome..” he whispered.

Giving the new laser gun a test run, he cocked it, aiming and bringing it up to his face for a better shot. He pointed the gun at one of the insanely expensive vases sitting on the suite’s kitchen table and pulling the trigger, grinning when a bright red laser shot out before he could even blink. The vase exploded, shards flying across the room, one shard flying dangerously close to Red Son’s head. Still, he didn’t blink.

“Yes!” He pumped a fist into the air in celebration, marching over to MK and hoisting him up by his forearm so that they were now both up and on their feet. They had no time to waste, Robotus was likely already making its way to the roof of the building, about to hop onto a getaway helicopter like every president does in a situation like this. Like seriously, it was starting to get old.

“Come on,” Red Son gripped the gun tightly, still holding onto MK’s arm with his other hand. MK nodded, gesturing for him to lead the way. 

And lead the way he did.

════

Red Son used his laser gun to burn a hole through the locked door leading to the stairwell, kicking through it. The stair area was unnaturally quiet, until his ears picked up the sound of panicked scurrying. The demon hurried over to the railing peering up and spotting the sleeve of Robotus’ jacket disappearing up the stairs. His eyes widened and he pointed up.

“There! He’s getting away,” he shouted, beginning his sprint up the steep steps, MK managing to overtake him. It was no surprise, working as a delivery boy meant tons of exercise and activity, while Red Son’s career required him to sit at a desk all day and let his brain do most of the work. 

Dragging the heavy gun with him, he began to slow down, chest heaving as he struggled to pull himself up the next step. He had to stop, doubling over, hands resting on his knees as he panted. MK sped off without him, scaling the stairs like it was nothing.

“Oh God,” Red Son breathed out, holding onto the railing for support, “I have a desk job. I don’t do a lot of cardio.”

Sweat rolled down the sides of his face as he stumbled forwards, heaving himself up the steps using the slippery railing. MK stopped mid step, looking back over his shoulder with a slight grin.

“Well, MK does!” MK announced, oddly referring to himself in third person. The demon shrugged it off for now, staring at him in confusion as MK made his way back down the stairs towards him. 

“Oh no,” Red Son yelped, “Wait– that really isn’t–”

MK scooped him off the ground into a cliche bridal carry, almost making the latter drop his gun in surprise.

“...Necessary,” Red Son finished, hair lighting ablaze as his face flushed. Now this was embarrassing.

MK picked up the pace, sprinting up the stairwell after the rogue robo-president who was threatening to blow up the planet. Red Son held onto his jacket for dear life, not entirely enjoying how he was being rocked around like he was on a boat. And he was very, very sea-sick.

Now was not the time to complain about his predicaments though, as he retrieved a large device from one of his back coat pockets. He had no idea how he was able to reach it from his position, but he didn’t have time to dwell on that. “I’m gonna call the team for backup,” he looked up at his current mode of transportation, seeing that he was entirely concentrated on his current path.

The tips of Red Son’s ears faded red as he urgently tapped at the screen in front of him.

“Hello? HQ? This is Red Son !” he shouted through the microphone, hoping his voice was coming through to the speakers in the conference room.

Tang jolted from his seat, almost falling backwards onto the floor and snapping his chair in half. He quickly got up and composed himself, dusting his clothes off and adjusting his glasses to squint at the large screen in front of them, “Red Son!?”

Mei suddenly appeared from behind the table, a tie awkwardly wrapped around her head and falling over her eye like a pirate’s eyepatch, “Did you say Red Son? Where?” 

She almost tripped over herself due to her lack of vision, catching the attention of Sandy and Pigsy who joined the two at the conference table and stared up at the screen seeing Red Son’s moving face. “Red! Missed you buddy,” Sandy grinned, Pigsy nodding in agreement.

Red Son gave them a deadpan stare, “You guys literally– Okay, nevermind we don’t have time for this. I need backup, stat.” 

Mei squinted up at the screen, wearing a wide grin, “Is MK carrying you?”

“Hah! Red Boy finally got swept off his feet,” Tang cackled teasingly.

Pigsy cupped his hands around his mouth for better projection, “Told ya’ you’d warm up to him.”

The fire demon growled, hair firing up again accompanied by the flustered flushing of his cheeks. “Shut your insignificant peasant mouths and help me save the world!” he shrieked, glaring down at the screen.

“Gah! But I’m so paranoid,” Tang recoiled, hiding behind the table, “The Shadow Board is out to get us.”

“Yeah.. Tang’s right. The world’s ending, may as well enjoy the few moments we have left,” Mei sighed, leaning back and acting super melancholy.

Red Son was at a loss for words. Without his team, he’d never be able to fix his mess. Earlier events proved that he and MK couldn’t challenge it on their own, let alone deal with the aftermath . MK glanced down, having listened to the entire conversation.

“Let me try,” MK gestured. Red Son hesitated before facing the screen so it perfectly projected the Noodle boy’s face as he ran, the entire team lighting up when they saw him in frame. 

“Guys? Listen up.. I feel you. You’re scared and you don’t know what to do. A couple hours ago I was cowering under a desk but now I’m chasing a robot up the stairs carrying a 140 pound demon in my arms–”

“My stationary bike is broken!” Red Son interrupted with a high pitched squeak in his voice, flushing in embarrassment once again. MK rolled his eyes with an affectionate smile, opening his mouth to continue his speech.

“The point is, we’re the gang. We get knocked down, but we get back up again. They’re never gonna keep us down!” He finished.

Silence filled the room, all hope dwindling even further until Sandy slowly stood up and held a hand to his forehead in a salute. “Sir, what are your orders?”

“Whatever his orders are,” MK grinned, pointing his gaze towards the demon. Red Son stared at him, eyes welling up with more emotions than he could handle. MK had managed to convince them with his idiotic hero speech. He should be angry that they’d listened to him instead of their own ex-team leader, but he was too busy formulating a new plan in his crazy intelligent brain.

“We need mission support, media suppression,” his brows furrowed, feeling like he was forgetting something. “Oh! And un-kidnap the real president.” He lit up.

He watched his entire team nod and yell “We’re on it,” in unison as they scrambled off to their assigned tasks. Red Son smiled proudly, ending the call and storing the device away just as MK reached the very top of the stairwell. The metal door was cracked open eerily, as Red Son quickly commanded MK to release him from their embarrassing predicament. With the gun safely in his other hand, he winced down at his injury. Granted that it would likely cause inconveniences with fighting, if they had to fight that is, he would have to avoid using it. Meaning he was down to just one arm.

The pair burst through the metal door, the white light above them illuminating them from behind as they stood out on the roof surrounded by a polluted night sky. They could hear nearby honking and screeching of tires from the traffic below, as the wind messed with their hair and played with their clothes.

Red Son had his gun aimed and ready to fire as he skidded to a stop.

“You’re cornered, robot. There’s nowhere for you to– Oh fuck.” he lowered his gun with a groan, eyes landing on a large helicopter that was ready for take off sitting in front of them.

On the platform, Robotus stood with its back turned with a humanly impossible tight grip on the ominous briefcase it had taken from the safe earlier. MK and Red Son shielded their faces as the helicopter blades started to whir and spin like a tornado, MK having to hold onto his bandana for dear life. 

Robotus turned its head to look over its shoulder with a malicious grin, obviously enjoying the little game of cat and mouse. The robot then threw open the helicopter door, revealing a generic couple who looked as if they were in the middle of an engagement. The two of them gasped, terrified of their sudden visitor.

“Congratulations you two! I hope you don’t mind, this is my helicopter now.” Robotus smiled at them.

Red Son’s eyes widened. Even over the deafening sound of the helicopter’s blades, he could hear that Robotus’ voice was straying further from human, now slightly raspy and more metallic sounding and a lot more spine-chilling. Robotus raised its arm, sending out several electro-magnetic waves throughout the helicopter and causing the lights to flicker and the control panels to spark in alarm. The pilots frantically pulled at the gears and pressed every button possible, but they no longer had any control over the aircraft.

Robotus had taken complete control over the helicopter.

The couple held onto each other tightly, screaming in fear for their lives, while Robotus stepped inside. Not long after, Red Son and MK made a break for the open door, not willing to let the robot get away for the second time that evening. They both yelled as they leaped inside just in time for the helicopter’s ascend to the sky. The door slammed behind them, MK rolling across the floor along with the gun Red Son had especially made.

The scientist quickly retrieved the gun, almost fumbling and dropping it once more as the rapidly flickering lights obscured his vision. MK quickly got to his feet, locking target on the robot who stared at them, fury in its eyes. MK took the chance to leap at Robotus, tackingling the robot to the ground and pinning its arms behind its back, forcing it to release the briefcase with a loud thud. 

“Hurry up and shoot it!” MK grunted, struggling against Robotus’ superhuman strength.

Red Son lowered the gun, sadness creeping into his eyes, “Noodle Boy, stop! It’s controlling the chopper with its mind, take it down and we go down with it!” The demon yelled over the beeping of the engines and the smashing of wine glasses behind them, likely belonging to the couple.

MK gasped as Robotus kneed him in the stomach, kicking his arm away and forcing the Noodle boy to let go of it. He tried to land a kick to the robot’s shin but that only resulted in a blow to his face as the cold hard robot knuckles collided with his left eye, no doubt leaving a nasty black eye. Robotus gripped MK by the tie around his neck and slammed its forehead into his nose, blood splattering all over his face as his nose dripped in agony.

The brunet choked on the pain, spitting out blood that entered his mouth and stained his teeth.

“ While it’s kicking the shit out of me?” He coughed, raising his fists and attempting to defend his face, only for the robot to aim somewhere else.

Robotus punched MK in the stomach again, drawing a pained wheeze out of the other as he attempted to pull at the robot’s hair. Still, he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to compliment the scientist’s handiwork. “Man, Red Son, your robot is so sick!” 

Before Red Son could even react, the helicopter jolted downwards, the engines beeping louder and more rapidly than before. The demon was thrown against the wall of the aircraft, barely missing the door as it flew open during the whole ordeal and nearly sucked Red Son right out.

Robotus grinned, gripping MK by his jacket and hurling him towards the open door only for the brunet to quickly grab onto the emergency railings beside the door, preventing himself from slipping out. The door slammed against his back repeatedly, drawing out several painful “Ow!”s from the Noodle boy.

Red Son held the gun with trembling hands, looking from the beaten up MK to Robotus who made its way to the briefcase that had recently been discarded. The scientist looked conflicted, heart hammering. 

“Red– Ow! Take the shot– Ow! Ow–” MK gritted out, still being assaulted by the door as he held on for the sake of his life. 

The lights continued to flicker dangerously as Red Son leapt to action, aiming the gun right at his robot’s face. The gun shook in his hands as he gritted his teeth, hair and coat fluttering in the wind being let in by the door. 

Robotus picked up the briefcase and smirked, watching with satisfaction as the scientist hesitated over the trigger.

“He won’t do it,” the robot chuckled.

“What? Why? Why would he not–!?” MK’s arms were beginning to weaken the longer he had to hold on to the railings that currently determined life or death.

“Because I’m his life’s work.” Robotus put on a fake pout, briefcase secure in its hands. It took a teasing step towards him, eyeing the gun with a half-lidded gaze but certain the demon would not dare pull the trigger.

Red Son’s breath hitched inside his throat, still aiming the gun. He stared at his creation, eyes wide and full of– What? Full of despair? Dread? His entire body seemed to freeze over under the robot’s icy glare. Red Son wanted to pull the trigger, he begged his body to just react and pull the damn trigger already, but all he could do was continue to stare mindlessly at what he had spent countless hours, weeks, months working on until it was beyond perfection. He lost sleep, skipped meals, showers, everything. He’d worked so damn hard.

And with the pull of the trigger, all of that would be turned to dust and ashes before he would have time to protest. Gone. Forever.

“And he knows that all of his suffering, everything that he’s been through to create the best version of myself,” Robotus leaned down a little, right in the face of the laser gun’s head, “Would all be for nothing.”

Red Son winced, the flickering of the lights making him feel lightheaded. 

“Everyone disappoints you, and that’s why you’ve buried yourself in your work.” The robot continued its rant. Red Son glanced over to MK, Robotus’ words picking at his brain and kicking his insides. Because deep down, it was telling the truth. Robotus knew Red Son inside and out, for a little bit of himself had seeped into its creation.

Thankfully, MK managed to pull the door shut completely, as he sat on the ground safely with a hand clutching one of his arms and his black eye swollen and sealed shut. They held eye contact, the brunet begging him to just take the shot and put everything to rest.

“I may be a cold, calculating machine.. But you are too.”

Robotus suddenly grabbed his hand that held the gun, Red Son screaming in pain as realisation finally set in that through all the panic and flurry of chaos, he had accidentally been holding the gun with his injured hand instead of his good one.

The burning sensation electrified him, forcing him to drop the gun and reel back, hitting the ground hard. Robotus bent over and retrieved the fallen weapon, analysing it with a smug smile and a raised eyebrow.

“It’s a shame, really. In the end, your insecurities truly were the death of you. All of humanity is pathetic,” Robotus snarled, slowly aiming the gun at the demon, “And I’m going to do us all the favour of ending it. Starting with you.”

Red Son squeezed his eyes shut, shielding his face with his arms and waiting for it to be over, when suddenly he heard a robotic grunt followed by a crunch and a huge thud. The helicopter stilled, seemingly due to the pilots regaining control, as the engine’s beeping ceased and the lights no longer flickered against the electromagnetic waves. The demon slowly opened his eyes, uncurling from his protective position and blinking the blurriness away from his eyes.

Robotus was crumpled on the floor in front of him, the gun sitting contently in its hand while the briefcase had once again been discarded to the side. And taking a closer look at the robot’s body.. It appeared to be missing a quite significant feature. Its head.

Behind its body his eyes landed on a worn pair of sneakers that guided his gaze to familiar black slacks, a torn jacket and unruly tie. The owner of this getup being a wide eyed Noodle boy in his stupid bandana panting heavily as he held a long red staff still in battle position, ready to strike if ever the robot came back to life all of a sudden. MK continued to glare down at the decapitated robot as its torn wiring on its neck twitched and sparked like how Red Son’s hair would, sometimes. 

He then looked up, catching Red Son’s exhausted stare as he slowly moved over to his destroyed invention, looking over it solemnly. MK joined him, crouching down on his knees with the staff still in his hands. The weird staff was bright red, with golden engraved cuffs at the ends. While Robotus was distracted, MK silently crawled over to the weapons bag and dug through it frantically, rushing to find anything that would prevent him from having to watch Red Son be blasted into pieces right before his eyes. And surely aftwards, he would be next. That was when he discovered a small object, the size of his thumb. It was as red as the bandana he wore on his head, and drawn to the vibrant colour he picked it up. And before he knew it, the object sized up into a staff and he’d used it to whack Robotus over the head. Obviously super hard since its head had flown right off in a gory pile of metal and static electricity.

Maybe he’d overestimated the power of his newfound weapon, but then again he just saved humanity. 

“How did you..” Red Son mumbled, eyes still blown wide in shock.

MK analysed the staff, “This cool staff looking thing. You think I can keep it? Like a souvenir?” he smiled through his bloody nose and, now opened, black eye.

Red Son looked at him and sighed fondly, “Knock yourself out.”

“Oh, I definitely could now that I have this sick whacking stick.” MK grinned, ignoring the playful eye roll from the demon. “What a crazy first week.”

The scientist gazed down at his invention, just slightly heart broken.

“This robot was going to prove that I should run the company. Maybe Wukong was right to fire me.” He muttered, sniffling and staring at his hands.

MK frowned, “Dude, are you insane? You just saved the frickin’ world!” He paused, “Besides my staff thing. But you take most of the credit, ‘kay?”

It wasn’t true. Red Son was the one who’d gotten himself injured in the first place with that idiotic, irrational decision back at the hotel, and he was the one who couldn’t even make it up a couple flights of stairs without needing to be carried like a damn toddler. And worst of all, he couldn’t pull the trigger. He dropped the gun, a mistake that almost had him killed. He would’ve been killed if it weren’t for the Noodle boy and his lucky weapon. Everyone was right, Red Son was just another pathetic screw up.

“I’m the one that should be fired. The company can’t run without you,” MK sighed, staring at the other hopefully. 

No, that wasn’t true either. The company would be able to run completely fine without him. Today, as well as several days prior, had already proven that. Even though he had recent revelations that MK did mean something to him. A weird thing, but he knew that deep down, he needed him. Red Son stilled. Remembering what Pigsy had told him that one time in the break room. MK.. was just what he needed. 

“No..” Red Son’s golden gaze flickered up at MK’s wounded face, “The company can’t run without us .”

He sighed, rubbing the side of his temple, “You’re the charm. I get it now. I actually needed some mediocre delivery boy to act as a human shield and social lubricant, while I accomplish my real goals,” he smiled.

MK smiled back, “Wow, you made actual eye contact!”

Red Son’s hair flared up, cheeks colouring, “You– Shut up, you know very well that I have made tons of eye contact!”

The brunet erupted into a laughing fit before gasping and clutching the area around his abdomen, wincing in pain. “Ouch.”

The fire demon looked down, noticing the dried blood on his dress shirt and jacket. His eyes widened in panic, turning his full attention to him and gripping him by the upper arms.

“Holy shit– did you get stabbed?” Red Son yelled. 

MK quickly moved the demon’s hands away from his arms and the tight grip he’d seized them in, holding both of his hands gently, “It’s okay! I’m okay! I didn’t get stabbed, it’s just the blood from my nose,” he released one of his hands to point at his bruised face.

Red Son was relieved but still cringed at his injuries, “Right. We should get you cleaned up. And you’re probably suffering with internal bleeding.” He motioned downwards.

“Mmm, yeah that makes sense,” MK breathed out, “What do we do with Robotus?”

The demon pulled MK up on his feet and nudged the lifeless metal body with his foot.

“Eh, I’ll figure it out.”

Suddenly they turned their heads in surprise, hearing the slight clinking of glass shards from the end of the flying helicopter. The couple were still latched onto each other, shifting the broken bottles and wine glasses away from them so they wouldn’t get impaled.

“Um, c–can we please land?” The woman’s voice trembled, while the man nodded frantically in agreement. 

Red Son ushered hushed apologies to the couple before pulling open the door to the cockpit and struggling to explain what had been happening while they were cowering under their control panels. The pilots thanked him for solving the Robotus issue and happily agreed to land the helicopter at the nearest airport which was still a long ways away from their current location.

As rain beat down on them from the dark sky above, the demon and the human leaned back into the comfortable helicopter seats with an exasperated sigh. Red Son offered him some tissues, but ended up cleaning the blood on his face himself since MK was still very woozy and did not remember how to determine his lefts to rights. In fact they better get to a hospital soon, his internal bleeding was knocking the guy out.

MK leaned his head back against the wall behind the seats and let his entire body flop. It felt nice letting Red Son take care of his injuries, just like how he’d taken care of his hand. Both events making his heart all fluttery and cheeks burn up again as if he had a fever. It’s worth noting that the demon did ask if he had a fever due to his impossibly red face.

But finally, they’d reached the calm after the storm, or the rainbow if you’d prefer. Red Son was at least a foot away from him, leaning back with his arms crossed as he continued to gaze sadly at his failed project. His ‘one way ticket to becoming CEO’ torn in half and left to rot on the floor that still had dark, dried up blood splatters staining it. MK’s blood, the blood he had shed in order to protect the world, to protect himself and what was most important to him, to protect Red Son. The Noodle boy was the real hero. And he was just some scummy sidekick who watches from the sidelines, uselessly.

Red Son hid his face in his hands, back hunching over as he tried to figure out what to do. What to say when he arrived at Cognito Inc. Especially how he would have to explain himself to the Shadow Board. He would be lucky if he were to escape with all of his limbs still intact. The fire demon was honestly terrified of the endless possibilities. He hated being unsure, uncertain. It drove him mad and made his head pound against his skull.

He jolted when he felt the pressure of someone pressing up against his shoulder. He felt the weight of MK shuffling and hooking an arm over Red Son’s shoulders, bringing him closer. The brunet sighed comfortably, watching the ends of Red Son’s hair flicker and spark in confusion. The demon slowly looked up, allowing himself to lean into MK’s consoling hold. He’d be lying if he said the sudden act of affection didn’t cheer him up a little.

For everything that happened, he wanted to blame Macaque. Since the monkey did admit to messing with the robot’s code. But it wouldn’t have happened if he just had some sense of self control. He let his emotions drive him, and he lost his position as the leader of the project and an overall employee in general at Cognito Inc.

Such a mortal insecurity, and he’d let it control him. Could he even still call himself a demon? An immortal being above all humankind?

Barely.

“Stop being so hard on yourself, Red.” MK spoke. The sound of his voice felt like cotton, wrapping around his body and making him feel that same warm feeling that didn’t emit from the usual flame that resided within him eternally. 

Red Son looked at him, unamused by his attempts at trying to convince him that Robotus hadn’t gone rogue due to his stupid emotions which were likely influenced by his association with too many mortals for most of his life. Hell, he couldn’t even recall the last time he’d seen his parents in person. They were probably enjoying their royal lives in the demon world and still tutting at their only son’s decision to ditch them for a life on planet earth with Macaque as his quote on quote mentor. After all, he was still rather young when he made the decision, and maybe his parents held onto the hope that he’d spend perhaps no more than a year loitering throughout the mortal realm and participating in mortal customs before getting tired of it and returning. But he never did. 

He couldn’t say he regretted his decision to live here and frolic around with humans, as most demons described it, but maybe he would have to return to his parents’ fortress permanently if his worries turned out to be completely true and the Shadow Board did indeed want his head on a silver platter. He couldn’t say the same about Robotus, but he very much preferred to have his head attached to his neck, thank you very much.

“I could’ve destroyed the planet,” Red Son deadpanned with a small pout, bringing his knees up to his chest and hugging them.

MK raised an eyebrow with a small smile, “Key word, could’ve! You didn’t destroy it, in fact we literally just saved the planet. And I did not suffer broken organs and a battered face for you to go n’ say otherwise!” He grinned, poking the side of his cheek playfully. His finger brushed over the ‘X’ shaped scar near his temple, making the demon shiver.

Red Son couldn’t help the laughter that came out of his mouth, the Noodle boy’s words warming his chest. “I think Robotus hit you on the head a little too hard,” he mumbled, releasing his legs and allowing them to return to dangling over the edge of the seat. 

He looked at him, noticing that the boy was squinting at him intimidatingly before tilting his head and smiling. Heat pricked at the back of Red Son’s neck, “What?”

“Have I ever told you that you’re soooo awesome and amazing..?” MK drawled lazily, “And eeeveryone thinks you’re really mean but you’re actually a real sweetheart!” He wrapped his arms around the demon, hugging him tightly and nuzzling the side of his face into his shoulder.

Red Son’s hair exploded into flames.

“ Definitely hit you on the head too hard,” He squeaked out, trying and failing to peel MK off of him. 

Or it was probably due to his organs bleeding out as they spoke. Yeah… they needed a hospital.

“Would someone who’s been hit on the head be able to do this?” MK hummed, reaching up to grab the demon’s face. Before Red Son could protest, MK leaned up and pecked the side of his cheek softly, before returning to his original position of burying his face in Red Son’s lab coat. “..Always wanted ta’ do that. M’ sleepy.. G’night..” The Noodle boy sighed, curling up into the latter like a clingy cat.

Red Son on the other hand was burning hotter than the sun as he registered what the fuck just happened. Not only had the idiot fucking kissed him, he just fell asleep as if it was just some totally normal occurance! He shot the couple they were sitting across from threatening scowls as they “Aw-ed” at the cute display in front of them. MK was lucky the demon fought the urge to add another bruise to his pretty face just for doing something so bold and equally as embarrassing, especially right in front of two random strangers.

He reached up, lightly brushing where the wetness of MK’s lips still lingered on his skin. Red Son’s cheeks flushed, the flames enveloping his hair flickering calmly. An uncommon occurrence for his hair, especially after what MK’s ‘drunken’ state had just pulled. 

Some say your true feelings emerge when both your body and your conscience is aware that your life is dwindling. Perhaps the Noodle boy had just revealed how he truly felt about the demon, even though he wasn’t 100 percent in the correct headspace or condition. Red Son brushed his fingers through his deep brown hair, which he’d judged completely incorrectly. It was soft, even if it still had traces of hair gel that kept it up in its signature spikes.

Red Son exhaled in frustration.

God, when would this agonising helicopter ride end?

════ ⋆🔥🍜⋆ ════

“ In a shocking turn of events, the President vetoed his own Americube proposal.” The blonde news reporter panned the camera to where the real President of the United States stood, adjusting the microphone so that it would project his voice for everyone to hear. 

“Citizens of the world, I think we can all agree..” The President pointed to the camera with a wide grin, “That was an epic troll!” He burst out laughing, slapping his knee in the process.

Sun Wukong shut off the television. “We did it!”

He leaped from his seat, hands on his hips, “The President is no longer murderous, he’s just incompetent!”

Suddenly the doors to the conference room burst open, Red Son striding in looking exhausted out of his mind. His coworkers started cheering and clapping their hands at their friend’s arrival, shutting the door gently behind him. He smiled proudly, accepting the cheers and the acclamation of praise being sent in his direction.

Wukong moved towards him with his arms out wide like he was offering a hug, “Red Son! I never doubted you for a second,” he patted him on the back once he saw the look of disapproval from the scientist when he’d offered the unnecessary show of affection. 

Red Son stared at him, “You literally fired me.”

“Hey Red Boy, where’s MK?” Mei piped up from behind the ginger monkey, peering around him for any sign of brown hair and a bright red bandana. Her eyes widened as she spotted the thick white bandages wrapped around one of his hands, almost like a cast. “Yo, what happened to you?”

The demon crossed his arms, “Noodle boy is in the hospital. Don’t worry he’s fine, they just need to monitor him for a few days. And I got this trying to escape from my killer robot,” He held up his injured hand.

“Awesome..” Mei whispered, eyes sparkling.

He rolled his eyes, smiling at his team fondly as they surrounded him, Sandy giving him a big ol’ bear hug that he didn’t have the heart to decline. He was home at Cognito Inc. where he belonged. The world was no longer threatened, and his friends were by his side. Minus MK.

He was going to visit MK soon. Just to see how he’s doing. According to normal human customs, visiting someone who had gotten injured for your sake is deemed polite in this day and age. He just hoped things wouldn’t be too awkward between them after what occurred in the helicopter. But he supposed he had nothing to worry about. He doubted the Noodle boy would even remember anything after the first blow to his face. Robotus got him pretty good. Either way, it was fine. It should be fine, right?

“You guys, we should go out and celebrate!” Mei suggested, the others nodding and murmuring at the idea. She looked at Red Son hopefully, “You in?”

Red Son hesitated, “I.. I think I really should check on my…”

As he pulled out one of his spare phones he kept in his lab, it lit up at least fifty times, being overloaded by text messages from Macaque begging him to bring back food and asking where the fuck he is and if he’s okay. Red Son shook his head and tossed his phone over his shoulder.

“Nevermind. Lead the way.” 

════

Soft rapping against the CEO’s office door snapped Sun Wukong out of the daydreams that plagued his mind while he laid against his desk dramatically. He shot up, straightening his tie and slicking back his hair to maintain a perfect image before calling for whoever had interrupted him to enter.

Red Son creaked open the door, peering around nervously.

“Um.. You needed me sir?” his eyes flickering down, like he knew exactly what Wukong needed to talk to him about. And Sun Wukong knew Red Son was smart. He knew he was aware this would come up long before he had returned from his mission to shut down Robotus a mere day ago.

“Come sit,” Wukong smiled, gesturing to the seats in front of his desk. Red Son offered a tense smile in return, shutting the door behind him and making his way over to the monkey CEO with stiff posture and an anxious face.

As he took a seat, Sun Wukong laughed at him. “Relax bud! I have good news!” Red Son perked up. “..Aaand bad news.” 

The demon cringed, staring at anywhere but his boss’ face. 

“The good news?” He asked warily.

Wukong grinned at him, picking at his teeth, “Well, the Shadow Board isn’t gonna kill us, even though they were pretty mad, boy you should’ve been there. Dudes did not want a civil conversation,” he tutted to himself, flicking whatever piece of food he’d gotten out of his teeth gaps off his finger nails, “Anyway, bad news is they feel as if you’re not ready for the promotion just yet. Especially after, y’know, this whole ‘robot gone rogue’ ordeal…” Wukong gulped, leaning back a little, expecting the demon to explode into a blind rage.

But Red Son looked up, sure he looked a little surprised but.. That was it. He didn’t look angry, sad, or devastated. He was keeping himself together. Honestly, Red Son expected this to happen. Old him would be absolutely furious, but then an irritatingly persistent delivery boy in a red bandana came along and spun his brain around like a whirlpool. It was like the perfect order in his mind had been completely changed and messed around, leaving him with whatever this was. Him in the present.

The scientist didn’t mind waiting a little longer for the royal position of CEO at Cognito Inc. He didn’t mind. As long as MK was there to co-lead the team with him for the time being, he was content. Describing this as the demon ‘going soft’ was a stretch, and would definitely earn a fireball to your face, but he didn’t really know how to describe it. But maybe a label wasn’t needed. There are just some things in the world you can’t necessarily put a finger on, how Red Son managed to do a complete 180 degree turn and decide to be mindful of the way he reacted to situations in the span of three days, was undoubtedly one of them.

Was it truly all due to MK’s influence? Or was it the way Robotus had peeled him open and read him like a book while he hesitated over the trigger? The answer remained unclear.

But did he really need an answer? 

No. He was perfectly happy with how things turned out for himself. The morning greetings were no longer hollow, the smiles no longer forced and fake. His coworkers were beginning to genuinely enjoy his company. And hey, he managed to get some refreshing shut-eye, the bags underneath his eyes disappearing only slightly. He’d need to catch up on a lot more hours for a full recovery.

“I understand,” Red Son bowed his head, hands folded in his lap.

Wukong shuddered, “Okay, you gotta stop whatever this is, what happened to the Red Son who wouldn’t hesitate to burn all the fur off my body? Aren’t you upset? At all? ”

Red Son gave him a confused look, pouting a little. “The news is disheartening, but I think I’m perfectly fine with my position as the leader of my team, as is.”

The monkey’s jaw dropped, “Are you kidding? But– You’ve been working towards this your entire life!” He waved his arms around frantically. “You’re gonna be stuck co-leading with MK for who knows how long! The Shadow Board can hold a grudge for a ridiculously long time, my dude.”

The demon shrugged, still keeping his cool, “I believe you’re aware the Noodle boy and I have negotiated a truce. I have no issue with continuing to work with him.”

Sun Wukong backed down, combing a paw through the ginger fur on his head.

“Wow. Okay. Uh.. Well, I’m glad to have you back on the team bud.” He exhaled, still fairly convinced he was talking to some weird Red Son clone who was the polar opposite of him. He leaned back into his chair and waved his hand. “Tell MK I said ‘sup when you visit him.”

Red Son got up from the chair and nodded, “Will do. Thank you.”

Walking out of Wukong’s office, there was still one more errand he had to run. He needed to check on something important before driving over to the hospital. Red Son stalked around the empty hallways, making sure he wasn’t spotted by any possible witnesses. He adjusted his glasses, walking over to a suspiciously placed painting on the wall. The white wall was completely bare save for that one specific painting of a sunset over an intricately sculpted ocean. 

Red Son tilted the painting to the side, revealing a red button. The demon looked over his shoulder again, relief washing over him as the coast remained clear. He pushed the button gently, a conveniently sized rectangular hole in the wall revealing itself. The hole opened to then reveal a brightly lit elevator, announcing its presence with a small ding.

He stepped inside, the wall-door closing behind him as the elevator brought him several floors deeper than Cognito’s lowest level. The elevator bell dinged again, letting him know that he’d arrived at the lowest point physically possible, before the door rolled open in front of him.

A tall double door stood ominously before him, the large red ‘RESTRICTED AREA’ sign coaxing him inside. Red Son stepped out of the elevator silently, walking towards the handprint scanner that accompanied the mysterious door. He used his remaining good hand, since the other one was still bandaged up, and the scanner flashed green in approval.

The doors swung open, making his white lab coat flutter along with his hair. Red Son entered the room, gazing upon what sat in the very centre, a large indestructible glass chamber.

Red Son smiled, eyes flickering to its captor.

The disassembled body of Robotus.

════

It’s only been a few days after the incident, and Red Son was still having a hard time getting over it. Robotus’ words still haunted him, even if he was aware that the heartless hunk of metal was just trying to get inside his head. It worked, which was basically the problem. Although the robot had made him feel like shit, it didn’t change the fact that the scientist had created the most advanced artificial intelligence in the entire world. No one had ever achieved what he had with Robotus. This of course didn’t snuff out the desire to recover its remains and experiment further.. In secret. Of course he felt guilty! But it was for a good cause..

Who knew, maybe one day when he really perfected its code this time around, it might benefit Cognito Inc. after all. He was doing the wrong thing with good intentions. That was all that mattered.

Standing in front of his ideas board with a marker in his now unbandaged dominant hand, he tapped his foot impatiently. His hand was fine now, it managed to heal rather quickly, the doctors presuming it was just one of the perks of being a demon. Red Son knew that really wasn’t how it worked, but whatever he wasn’t in the mood to argue with a doctor at the time. 

On a lighter note, he’d been visiting MK a lot more after his first visit the day Wukong had broken the news to him that he wasn’t getting the promotion. MK apologised, but the demon told him not to worry about it, and that on the bright side, he’d get to continue to co-lead alongside him. MK was ecstatic about that.

A few visits later, MK begged him to let him see the scar on his hand, and he didn’t admit that he quite enjoyed the Noodle boy’s gushing and fussing over the new ‘battle scar.’ This marked the second permanent scar on his body. He guessed both marked a significant event in his life now, like he was some main character in a boring novel. Hilarious.

He huffed, almost burning a hole through the whiteboard with how intensely he was staring at the empty surface. The demon tapped the marker against his chin as his brain whirred. Sun Wukong had recently assigned him a mundane task, simply coming up with ideas for a venue for MK’s ‘welcome back’ party. Okay he could admit he was a little irritated at this, since one time he had to take almost an entire month off, suffering in quarantine after he’d accidentally become a test dummy for a new virus that the medical department had been developing. And once he’d returned, he’d received nothing more than a “You were in quarantine?”

The morons hadn’t even noticed he was missing! Red Son noticed his hair had begun to smoke again and he quickly swatted at it, trying to keep it under control. He’d been getting better, slowly. It wasn’t helping that there was another thing he couldn’t keep his mind off of.

His cheeks flushed deeply each time it would cross his mind, causing him to lose focus on his current task. It was especially inconvenient as this didn’t go unnoticed by his friends, oftentimes Mei or Pigsy would ask him why his face had become so red all of a sudden and the demon’s eyes would widen and he’d quickly look away to hide the embarrassment. All the while the two of them snickered, teasing him relentlessly. 

But he didn’t care as long as they didn’t find out the reason he’d been all hot under the collar lately. The moment they found out would be the moment he was ready to retire back to the demon realm. 

He could never let anyone know that MK was literally driving him crazy, and not necessarily in a bad way. The demon was starting to question if the brunet even remembered the helicopter trip, as during the many visits he’d not once mentioned or hinted that he did in fact have the faint memory of his own bold move. Maybe he really didn’t remember, and his actions truly were just him acting irrationally due to blood loss and everything else that Robotus had inflicted on him. If this were the case, then it was wise to just forget about it and let everything return to normal. The only issue being that he didn’t think he’d be able to look at the Noodle boy the same ever again. He didn’t think he’d even be able to maintain more than five seconds of friendly eye contact.

Shouldn’t he just tell him? Would that make him feel more at ease? 

Red Son shook his head, muttering to himself, still tapping his foot aggressively. No, no, who knows how he would react. Hell, he might even look at him in utter disgust and deny that he would ever do such a thing. 

The demon chewed on his thumbnail, lifting the marker up to the board. Come on he needed to get at least one idea down, and he was getting way too distracted yet again. Where would a party like this even be held? Red Son was probably the worst person to assign this task to, as he was clueless on just about anything that involved social interaction.

He works alone in an underground lab for Christ’s sake. Well, not entirely alone but the point still stands.

The demon huffed again, stepping forward to write something at last. The marker squeaked against the pressure as Red Son wrote down a single word. ‘Here ?’

Hosting a party at Cognito Inc. didn’t sound too troublesome, he’s sure it’s been done before. And he doubted that MK would want to go out immediately after just being released from the hospital. The demon stood back, observing what he’d written. For some odd reason he seemed to be so focused on the board that his ears didn’t pick up the sound of his lab doors sliding open and then closing shortly after, followed by wary footsteps.

The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he froze in his spot.

“Hey Red,” A familiar voice greeted quietly.

Even though he instantly recognised who the voice belonged to, his reflexes acted faster than his brain could register, spinning on his heels and erupting into flames ready for conflict, discarding the white board marker to the floor. Upon seeing it was just MK, his fire dissipated and he dusted off his coat, adjusting his glasses with an arched eyebrow. “Noodle boy?”

MK smiled sheepishly, wearing his casual attire. It was strange, he’d never seen the brunet in anything other than his work suit, so staring at a bright orange jacket, plain white t-shirt with a target-like symbol plastered on the front paired with bright red jeans and his usual black sneakers was new to him. At least he still wore his signature bandana, he didn’t think he’d be able to recognise him without it. Then it hit him. Wasn’t he supposed to be in the hospital right now?

Red Son tilted his head, frowning in slight concern, “..What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in the hospital?”

Was he hallucinating him? God, maybe he missed him so much that his brain formulated an incredibly detailed and accurate version of MK that was currently standing a few feet away from him with both hands in his jacket pockets. He seriously needed to tear his brain out of his skull, empty it out and put it back in because this was just getting out of hand. And if he was a hallucination, why did his mind imagine him in such a strange outfit? He blinked a few times, opening his mouth to protest that he was just a figment of his imagination but MK cut him off.

“Uh… They released me early!” The Noodle boy grinned, “How have you been?”

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a hallucination and he was really standing right in front of him. That made way more logical sense, no hallucination could possibly be this accurate.

“I saw you yesterday,” Red Son’s expression remained puzzled, trying to piece together the most reasonable explanation as to why MK was in his lab instead of being tucked safely into a hospital bed. It had only been a few days.. Almost a week, and he’d been visiting him pretty regularly. Mostly just to fill him in on the most recent projects, news and usual company mishaps. Though he couldn’t say he wasn’t at least a little happy to see him, you know, out of bed.

He couldn’t help but notice that the other looked tense, failing to look at him as he stared at the floor and picked at his jacket sleeves nervously. This in turn made the demon anxious as to why the Noodle boy was acting so skittish. Was it because of what happened in the helicopter? Oh God, was he about to cut all ties from him permanently? Was that how uneasy he was about it? Red Son’s hair began to spark at the tips, opening his mouth to speak but getting cut off yet again.

“This may sound weird but, I actually came here to apologise… Again…” MK looked up, guilt melting into the organic colour of his eyes. “About.. Well, you know, what I did back.. After Robotus..” he struggled to string his thoughts together.

Red Son’s eyes widened and he might as well have dropped dead on the spot by how his heart rate picked up instantly. “Oh…” the demon managed to utter.

“I remembered everything that happened when I woke up and I immediately freaked out. You weren’t there with me and I panicked thinking I’d made you super uncomfortable and I probably  weirded you out until you visited me later that morning and you were acting so… so normal! You hadn’t mentioned it once, or treated or looked at me any differently. You were just acting like nothing had even happened and then that made me even more anxious,” MK waved his hands around wildly as he rapidly explained himself, meanwhile Red Son was staring at him and trying to make sense of the incomprehensible slurry of words spewing out of the Noodle boy’s mouth. 

 “So I thought, holy crap I must’ve made him so uncomfortable that he wants to pretend it didn’t even happen, and he probably thinks I don’t remember anything too! Then I realised I had to apologise otherwise I’d probably never be able to look at you in the face ever again, and then before I knew it I was breaking outta the hospital and sneaking in here!” He gasped, out of breath from the mouthful of words he’d spat out without letting his lungs take a moment to breathe.

“Wait, wait..” Red Son pinched the bridge of his nose, slowly taking a couple steps towards him so that they were standing face to face, “I thought you said they released you early?”

So he’d managed to piece together a few things here and there. 

MK pursed his lips, scratching the back of his neck and looking as if he’d been caught red-handed. Which he had been. Red Son on the other hand looked unamused, crossing his arms over his torso. Subtly, his eyes softened even though he was supposed to be frustrated that he’d once again risked his own safety for the sake of clearing things up with Red Son.

“Yeah.. um..” MK laughed awkwardly, “I lied. I snuck out of my hospital room window and took a taxi. Whoops,” he shrugged like it was all just an unfortunate accident.

Adding onto his concerns, Red Son was pretty sure he was violating some sort of health and safety law by literally breaking out of the hospital against his own detainment. Some poor nurse was probably looking for him right now, and he had to resist the urge to grab him by the ear and drag him all the way back to the hospital so he could make a full recovery. But he wanted to hear what he had to say first, admittedly. Robotus was clearly wrong about one thing. Red Son couldn’t possibly be a cold calculating machine, he cared about others’ feelings and opinions.

Well.. starting recently, that is. After the Robotus debacle.

Okay, maybe the robot was spouting some truth but that’s nothing good ol’ character development can’t fix. Like those dumb tv-shows. And Red Son knows this now, because as of late he’s been trying to reduce himself to peasantry level amusement such as watching.. Films… and sitcoms. The memories of all of the recent late nights spent curled up in a blanket in front of his flatscreen TV made him shudder, but he was only suffering such mortal atrocities as a result of him shamefully giving in to his curiosities since his mind-numbing shows were practically all MK talked about on his visits. And it was certainly because the ridiculously tiny box television hanging in the corner of his room was the only thing keeping him entertained all day.

“Besides that.. I really am super sorry, honest! I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable and the thought of you hating me drove me nuts because I really really like you and I’d never be able to live with myself knowing I’d upset you and …”

The sound of MK’s voice tuned itself out of Red Son’s head as he processed the fact that he technically just confirmed his current theories and practically eliminated all of his internal doubt. MK.. liked him. 

“..I just don’t want things to be awkward between us. So I’m sorry.” MK gasped out, releasing the breath he’d been holding the entire time he was chattering, staring at Red Son and dreading any hint of a negative reaction. He blinked hopefully as the demon opened and closed his mouth, contemplating his response. 

MK’s expression melted into panic as Red Son failed to say anything, the tips of his ears only flushing red in the glow of the laboratory’s modern-esque lighting. “..Red?”

The redness spread to his cheeks as he hid his face in his hands and grumbled. MK’s eyes widened, many emotions, mostly uncertainty, glossing over his umber eyes. This was not how he’d expected his colleague to react. 

Well, to be fair he didn’t actually know how he’d expected him to react in the first place.

The delivery boy brought his hands up to grip onto his shoulders as he was quite convinced that this was some sort of demon panic attack. Or something. Yeah, he had no idea what was happening. 

“Red Son? Red, are you– Do I need to call an ambulance–?”

The demon’s hair whipped into a storm of flames once more as he removed his face from his hands and corrected his bent posture, “No you– You’re such a– gah!” Red Son shrieked, neither of them fazed by the fact that they were standing extraordinarily close to each other. 

MK tilted his head, hands still gently clasping the other’s frame.

“What..?”

Red Son glared at him, managing to extinguish his hair before it got out of hand.

“Do you seriously not–?” His voice cracked, a reminder that he should probably lower his voice a few octaves. “You’re an oblivious, noodle-brained fool, you know that?”

The ‘oblivious, noodle-brained fool’ stared at him blankly, “Um.. am I missing something?”

“ Yes!” Red Son gritted out, “You can’t just prance into my lab unannounced and suddenly say.. That without any warning! This is like the helicopter ride all over again, are you trying to kill me!?” the demon shoved an accusatory finger to his chest all the while he stuttered and blushed like a highschool girl. 

His heart could not handle the strain of its strings being pulled and tugged at like a wooden puppet. The puppeteer being the clueless brunet who was still holding onto his arms. 

“The helicopter…? Wait, what did I say?” MK asked, hands unsticking from the fabric of Red Son’s lab coat.

Red Son let out an exhausted huff and allowed himself to flop forward onto MK, burying his face into his shoulder. MK stumbled slightly, surprised at the unexpected gesture. His arms felt numb, hands lingering at his waist, unsure whether he should support his weight to eliminate the risk of falling on his behind with the demon splayed on top of him. But he was also uncertain if Red Son would even accept such an intimate response, as simply the thought of touching anywhere around the latter’s hips made his face burn hotter than said demon’s hair. 

He felt the pressing of fabric at his shoulder as Red Son mumbled something into his jacket. MK desperately hoped that he didn’t notice how his heart rate had picked up rapidly as he realised the demon had turned his head slightly for some oxygen, his hot breath brushing against the side of his neck. The feeling made MK gulp.

“What was that?” The Noodle boy choked out, steam practically bursting from his ears. 

What Red Son had previously commented was that the boy smelled nice. Closing his eyes, the scent familiarised him with a particularly humble noodle shop, assuming he likely wore the jacket during deliveries. Each perfected flavour and spice of every meal he delivered balancing out with satisfaction. It made him feel oddly nostalgic, though he wasn’t sure why. There was also the slight smell of smoke and something that could be compared to the burning of rubber. MK had the busy streets of Megapolis to thank for that. 

He could tell MK worked hard. It was strange how all of that could be deciphered by a bright orange jacket. 

Red Son lifted his head from his shoulder slightly, in the direction of MK’s neck just so he’d be able to hear him. “Are you truly clueless, or are you trying to pry the words out of my mouth to torture me?” A breathy chuckle escaped from his lips, making the Noodle boy shiver. “Because I will not hesitate to set you on fire.”

The fire demon lit a flame in the palm of his hand from beside him to prove his point, making the latter squeak. MK tried to backtrack, scouring his brain archives and trying to remember everything he’d previously said. Until he was successful.

If the brunet’s face wasn’t already burning like hellfire before, it definitely was now. He remembered now.

  “..I really really like you..”

Had he seriously accidentally blurted that out in his panic? Fuck, no wonder Red Son had reacted like he did. 

“Oh,” MK’s breath hitched, “Oh my God.”

“Yeah.” Red Son laughed. 

The noise made MK’s heart do somersaults, the heat in his face slowly making its way down his neck where the demon was still breathing.

A comfortable silence followed, Red Son still leaning on MK like he’d disappear into the dust particles that littered the air if he let him go. And on the other hand, though the brunet’s legs felt wobbly and paralyzed at the same time, he didn’t want the demon to let go either.

“MK.” Red Son broke the silence. 

MK’s eyes blew wide hearing the demon call him by his actual name when he had only ever insulted him or called him names like ‘Noodle boy.’ His name sounded strange rolling off Red Son’s tongue for the first time, but he loved it.

“Did you mean it?” the redhead finally murmured, snaking his arms around the shorter so that his fingers gripped onto the back of MK’s jacket. His voice was quiet. Timid. Having to ask such a question was making him feel queasy with yet another thick wave of emotions he still hadn’t familiarised himself with. 

“..Would it be weird If I said yes?” MK replied, barely above a whisper as he drew his words out.

He felt the heat of Red Son’s hair twitching and flickering impatiently, like it was waiting for something to happen. The demon lifted his head up with a soft sigh, lips brushing against the skin on MK’s cheek. “Not at all,” he muttered.

“Ah–” MK inhaled sharply at the surprising sensation of the other’s lips pressing against his cheek in a quick, chaste kiss.

Red Son craned his head down, returning his face near the crook of the brunet’s neck while fighting a dorky grin.

 “Payback.” 

The Noodle boy could feel his smile as he said it.

MK giggled to himself, giddy from what could perhaps be described as love, or maybe he was just surprised by the sudden playfulness the usually apathetic demon displayed. He caved in on his previous urges, melting into the fire demon’s embrace and wrapping his arms around him, squeezing him tight as if this was the last time he could ever hug him.

“Can you say it again?” Red Son mumbled.

“Hmm?” MK hummed, noticing how Red Son’s hands strayed from his jacket, reaching up to play with the torn ends of the bandana that hung behind his neck.

“Say it again.”

“What? That I like you?” MK winced when the demon suddenly gave his bandana a light tug hearing the confession once more. He chuckled. “I like you, Red Son. A lot.”

Red Son let a flustered noise escape his lips as he pressed his blushing face deeper into his neck, his glasses poking at his skin uncomfortably. But he didn’t mind, his reaction was adorable. He also couldn’t help but want to tease him.

“Wow, I don’t even get an ‘I like you too’? Harsh, already breaking my heart.” MK pouted dramatically, even though the demon couldn’t see it.

“Oh, shut up, I still haven’t entirely processed the first time you said it.” Red Son spluttered. Feeling slightly guilty, he placed a kiss to the side of his neck. That shut the Noodle boy up, as his jaw clicked shut, heart jolting out of his chest and oxygen abandoning his lungs. Before both of them could say or do anything else, the digital watch wrapped around the scientist’s wrist beeped a couple times, alarming the two out of their affectionate state.

Red Son let go of the other, quickly hiking up his sleeve to check his watch and find out why it was making such a racket and interrupting their moment. MK lightly kicked his foot against the tiled floor, already missing the warmth of the fire demon resting against him.

“ Shit, Wukong’s conference meeting! I can’t believe it slipped my mind,” Red Son pressed the heel of his palm against his eye in distress. Actually, he could see how it managed to slip his mind, seeing as he’d gotten paid an unexpected visit.

MK lit up, “Can I come?”

The demon paused, looking at him with an eyebrow raised, “Seriously? Don’t you want to go home?”

“Nah. I’d rather spend some quality time with you,” MK smiled with half lidded eyes.

The demon blushed, looking away and muttering something before scoffing and grabbing the Noodle boy’s hand.

“Fine, fine, come on we’ll be late.”

“Wait.” MK pulled him back, turning him so that they were face to face again. The brunet gave his hand a gentle squeeze, the small gesture easily releasing the tension in his shoulders.

“Do you think we could talk about this some more? Sometime.. Later?” He grinned, teeth gleaming and making the fire demon’s hair twitch.

There was a time when the topic of relationships had come up in an intrusive conversation with Macaque back at his home, one that managed to dig too deep under his skin and light the flame in his eyes. To put it plainly, the monkey was intoxicated and had attempted to pry into Red Son’s quote on quote dating life and was incredulous to the fact that the demon did not possess such a thing. For as long as he could remember, he had denied ever having the absurd desire for a romantic partner, always shooting the idea down with the claim that he had way more important feats to worry about. Such as his career.

Sure he’d entertained the odd fantasy once or twice, but he’d never once thought of pursuing them. In fact he much rather they stay as bothersome daydreams that strayed him away from reality every once in a while instead of having to commit to something other than what he was most prideful in, inventing. Mei had even joked light heartedly one time that Red Son would wound up marrying a robot partner he’d created himself rather than a real living, breathing person. 

Though Mei meant it light heartedly, Red Son took it the complete opposite. Thus beginning his embarrassing phase of making himself look presentable, and going out. Sure he’d been catcalled a few times, to which he had glowered at them and flipped them off before continuing on his way. Unfortunately due to the futile demand for him to follow the long list of human laws and regulations, he, apparently, couldn’t use his fire in public spaces nor threaten arson. He was thankful these restrictions didn’t apply in his work, meaning in Cognito he could use them whenever he pleased. It was strange how the world hadn’t yet adjusted to the lifestyle of demons, but he supposed he’d have to continue taking advantage of loopholes until he was able to do something as simple as summon a miniscule flame without police snipers training on his forehead. 

After all of this hassle to make a show of himself and try to.. Socialise, there was not one relationship he could follow through with. Instead of meeting new people, he found that he had turned them all down to their forlorn disappointment. It was a night he’d never mentioned to anyone, not even Macaque, in hopes he’d just forget about it and forget about stupid feelings and stupid relationships. 

Red Son had basically shunned any and all of those ideals, thoughts and fantasies about actually developing an emotional bond with someone else as soon as he’d shut the door to his apartment behind him that very night. He’d left it at the doorstep alongside his dirty shoes.

So never in his several years of living, had he ever once imagined that he’d say..

“Yeah. Yeah, we will.” The demon nodded, returning the smile and the lenient squeezing of his hand intertwined with MK’s.

It would take him a while for the words to finally defrost and melt on his tongue, as did his eventual acceptance of the fact. But despite his persistence to avoid the humiliating subject, Red Son does like MK. He really does.

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Making their entrance into the conference room where the triangular table and its inhabitants awaited them, each of their coworkers turned their attention to the sound of the doors swinging open. All of them looked on in confusion at the sight of the Noodle boy sauntering into the room after their team leader like he was leading the other along on a dog’s leash. What added more layers onto their scepticism was the fact that MK was in casual wear instead of his professional work suit. 

They all greeted him with smiles that creased the corners of their eyes and showered him with warm hugs regardless. Even Sun Wukong was ecstatic that he was back in the workforce, hooking his head under his arm and ruffling his hair with a hearty chuckle while the poor boy struggled to breathe

Red Son took a seat near the edge of the table, leaning into the cushioning of the chair he’d claimed and patiently waiting for the mini celebration to conclude. He wasn’t in any position to complain though, since MK’s surprise appearance distracted their CEO from Red Son’s tardiness. 

The lot of them would have earlier assumed that MK would sit away from the hot headed scientist, but the assumptions were hence proven wrong as the moment he’d freed himself from their grabby hands and welcoming gazes he’d strolled over to the empty chair next to Red Son and took a seat. MK glanced at the demon, shooting him a small side smile, compelling the demon’s previously constricted stare to soften. Pigsy, along with the others, gawked at them with their eyebrows raised.

Sun Wukong clapped his hands together, capturing the attention of everyone in the room.

“Alright team, I’ve requested you all attend this meeting so we can discuss our current matters at hand,” Their boss clicked his tongue triumphantly, “The Shadow Board has issued another commission!”

The team’s eyes collectively widened, stealing shocked glances from one another. After recent events, they were surprised that all seven of them, including Wukong himself, hadn’t been sacked from the company entirely. 

“I know what you’re thinking. After our last project, how could they possibly trust us with future endeavours?” Wukong spread his arms, making wild gestures, “Well the answer is, they don’t.”

All of their faces melted into disappointment, guilt eroding Red Son’s internal organs and making his limbs feel heavy when he realised it was technically his fault. And now all of them had to suffer the consequences. If his self hatred couldn’t get any worse, this certainly was not helping.

“Except Red Son. They trust Red Son with their lives.” Sun Wukong added with a flick of his tail. 

Red Son’s jaw dropped, the other’s whipping their heads to stare at him.

“I beg your pardon?” The demon adjusted his glasses, leaning forward in his chair. The Shadow Board still trusted him? Even after the Robotus incident?

The monkey cleared his throat, “In their words, though not yet fit to run the company on his own, we recognise his intellectual potential along with his fascinating ability to design and construct literally anything we tell him to. Basically our mighty overlords engage in active favouritism.” 

Red Son blinked, “Wait, so you’re saying the commission is for me?”

“Yep!” Wukong popped the p, clasping his hands together in front of his chest and turned to the rest of the bunch, “It was actually pointless to gather the rest of you in here, I just wanted everyone to know that the Shadow Board still despises us, so I’m not the only one wallowing in self pity.”

Mei, Sandy, Pigsy and Tang aimed outraged groans in their CEO’s direction before propelling themselves out of their seats and shoving the chairs back into place before stomping towards the door as a collective group. The four of them shared annoyed looks and muttered several complaints and insults thinking Wukong couldn’t hear them as they exited, slamming the heavy doors behind them.

Unlike the others, MK stuck around, releasing a short whistle from his lips as he watched them go. “Wow.”

Red Son stared blankly at Sun Wukong, eye twitching slightly when he began to pick at his teeth again. He exhaled slowly, trying to contain his irritation, “The commission? Sir?”

The monkey paused, “Oh yeah, right. Meet me in my office at about.. Um, let’s say around three sharp.” He grinned before bounding towards the door.

“Wh– Excuse m– What do you mean three? Three what?” Red Son shrieked after him, hair lighting ablaze and embracing the hanging lights above him. 

Before the monkey could answer, his tail slipped around the door and he disappeared out of sight. The scientist groaned, hair extinguishing as he dragged a hand down his face, disturbing the position of his glasses. MK reached over to pat his shoulder comfortingly, the demon instantly leaning into his touch. He guessed he’d just have to assume three in the afternoon, seeing as he knew for certain that the lazy monkey would not be awake at three in the morning.

“Wanna go get lunch?” The Noodle boy offered with the same soft smile that never failed to make his cheeks positively burn.

Red Son sighed and nodded, trying to recall when he’d eaten last.

“Sure… Noodle boy.”

Again with the nickname. MK laughed, eyes filling up and spilling over with pure adoration as he bumped his hip with his own. The demon huffed and nudged him back.

As MK held the door open for him, scratching the side of his head. “Y’know, even after everything that’s happened.. Robotus was a pretty cool robot. Too bad it had to be incinerated.”

Red Son stiffened as he took a step out of the room. All he could offer the other was a half-hearted smile forged by anxious lips.

“..Yeah.” The scientist chuckled nervously, “Incinerated.”

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