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“Picked the wrong successor…” The voices echoed in his mind, the overwhelming sound of static accompanying it. Blue eyes flash in his vision, scratchy, as if drawn by a pen with single strokes. He looks at his hands. they were the same, rapidly shifting as if a million people were drawing them with single pen lines.
He looked up as Lady Bone Demon, in the same glitch and scratchy fashion, drew closer, and closer, her words still echoing, until-
MK gasps, sitting upright immediately. It's okay, he's safe. He's at a sleepover at Mei's place since she had to house-sit again. It'd been 2, almost 3 months since the lady bone demon incident had been resolved, but he couldn't stop thinking about her. What if she comes back? What if she gets to Wukong again? What if-
He stops himself from thinking about it. He looks around. He's in his own sleeping bag, next to Mei's bed. A bit farther away is Red Son, who's also sleeping.
Red Son had reluctantly agreed to have a sleepover with Mei- on the conditions that they weren't to force them to play "foolish teenager shenanigans (they weren't planning on playing anything like drinking games or spin the bottle anyway; they also thought those games were kind of stupid).
He lays back down, trying to go back to sleep, but he can't. Every time he closes his eyes, he sees her again. Hears her words in his mind.
“That pursuit only leads to one thing. To pain..."
He groans and sits back up, rubbing his eyes. He's just now realizing how thirsty he is. He fumbles around in the dark for his phone, finally grabbing it near the foot of his sleeping bag.
It's 3:47 in the morning. Ugh, he's going to be so tired when he wakes up tomorrow.
He stands up and stretches for a second, wincing at the sound of his bones popping. Mei had always been a heavy sleeper, though- It was Red Son he was worried about.
MK holds his breath as Red Son groans and rolls over in their sleep. He waits a second before he starts to slowly make his way to Mei's bedroom door. He slowly turns the knob and starts to pull the door open. It slowly pulls open, and he's almost able to slip through, he takes a step forward and-
CREEEAAAAAAK.
He whips around as the loud sound echoes through the hallway and Mei's room. Red Son mumbles in their sleep. After a second, MK quickly but quietly makes his way into the hallway and towards Mei's kitchen. He quickly realizes that he literally can't see in the dark hallway.
He squints for a moment before he's able to use his gold vision. It's blinding for a moment, as if you just flicked on the lights to a pitch-black room, which, the more he thought about it, is literally what he just did.
After about 3 minutes of walking, he gets to the kitchen, which is surprisingly much smaller and more humble than the rest of Mei’s home. He opens up the cabinet where the glass cups are, grabbing one. He walks towards the fridge, putting his glass up to the water dispenser.
“What are you doing, Noodle Boy?”
MK yelps and whips around, almost dropping his glass. Red Son is standing in the kitchen with him, hands in their pockets. Red Son is startled when MK turns around, too, but that was probably because they didn’t expect to see MK’s eyes glowing golden, lighting up the air around him softly.
“Oh, uh, hey, Red Son! I was just getting water.” He whispers, chuckling nervously afterward. Guilt rose in his chest as he realized that he must’ve woken them up when he was sneaking out.
“Why are you awake at this ungodly hour?” Red Son replies, sounding a bit irritated. “You’re really terrible at keeping quiet, you know.”
“Sorry! MK says, wincing. “Couldn't you have just gone back to sleep?”
Red Son stutters for a second. "Well, yes, but I just- I wanted to see what you were doing, and I wanted to make sure you were okay." They rush the last bit, whispering it furiously, as if mad at themselves for admitting it.
MK smirks. "Aw, really? you're such a good frie-”
Red Son cuts him off. “Don't finish that." They groan.
The two just stare at each other for a moment before Red Son grumbles and grabs themselves a glass too.
They both end up standing next to each other in Mei's kitchen, drinking water. MK notes that Red Son seems to just be constantly radiating heat- his right side feels warmer already just from standing a few inches away from them. MK finishes his glass of water first and puts it in the sink, Red Son doing the same afterward. They head back to Mei's room silently, MK's eyes still glowing gold and slightly illuminating the hall.
They both settle back into their sleeping bags, MK blinking a couple of times to return his vision to normal. It's dark in the room again.
So now he just lays there. He can't go back to sleep, even after walking around a bit to distract himself, he still can't stop thinking about the Lady Bone Demon.
10 minutes pass. Then 15. Then 30. and eventually, it's 4:46, and he still can’t go back to sleep.
"Ugh. I know you're awake, Noodle Brain." Red Son's sharp whisper cuts through the silence of the room, like a knife through butter.
MK sighs and just whispers, "Yeah."
After a couple of seconds of silence, MK can hear the rustling of Red Son's sleeping bag as they walk closer. They lay down their own sleeping bag about a foot from MK's and sit down on it, looking at him.
“...Are you thinking about her? The Lady Bone Demon?”
MK shudders at the name as he sits up next to them. “Yeah.”
“If I’m being honest, I was never asleep before you woke me up in the first place. I, too, can't stop thinking about her. What she did to my family, what she did to you. I hate it.”
"Yeah we've just gotta power through it though, right?"
“I suppose.”
It was a minute before Red Son spoke up again. “I heard you in your sleep. You were dreaming about her again, weren't you?
“Wha-ha-ha-hat? I totally wasn- Wait, what do you mean by 'again!?"
"Do you remember last month when the dragon girl dragged you and I to the anti-gravity arcade and you passed out at 2 am? She and I took you home in your delivery car- By the way, just get a new form of transportation, that thing is on its last life- and you kept talking in your sleep. You started crying at one point, if I remember correctly.” Red Son said quietly
MK didn’t respond as he fiddled with his fingers, staring into the dark. Red Son put a hand on his shoulder, and that's when he broke down.
Maybe it was because it was because of what they were talking about, maybe it was because of the buildup of all of it after he'd been holding all of this in for weeks maybe it was just because it was 4 am and he was tired and emotional. Who knows?
He tried to be quiet as possible to be respectful of Mei, who was still sleeping, his quiet sobs echoing through the room. Red Son didn't say anything, just kept a gentle but still firm hand on his trembling shoulder.
He tried to stop the sobs, but they just kept coming. He couldn't stop. It was like he'd lifted the dam and stopped blocking off a lake, and trying to put it back was impossible. Eventually, after who knows how long, the lake dried up.
He sniffed a couple times and wiped the tears off the tears of his face. He almost wanted to cry again when he remember that Red Son had been with him the whole time. They hadn’t asked questions or anything, they were just there for him when he really needed it. It was frankly a bit out of character for them, but he appreciated it, nonetheless. He turned and stared at Red Son for a moment before embracing them, resting his head on their shoulder and wrapping his arms around their back.
Red Son tentatively hugged MK back. Hugging Red Son felt like cuddling a giant warm water bottle; they were soft and warm. It was incredibly comforting. After a few minutes, Red Son let go, squeezing MK slightly before they did.
“Thanks,” MK whispered, smiling awkwardly in the dark
Red Son chuckled quietly and smiled slightly. “You’re welcome, Noodle Brain."
They both lay back down in their sleeping bags. If they both noticed they reached for the other’s hand at the same time, they didn't say anything. They fell asleep that way, gently holding one another's hands.
Needless to say, Mei had some great blackmail photos when she woke up an hour before they did.