Work Text:
The paint is cold against the monkey’s skin, but in a soothing sort of way.
Wukong sits perfectly still, as if he’s been turned back to stone as Erlang paints his face. His master is so good to him, he knows this.
Erlang pauses and steps back to look at his work, before cleaning off the brush and dipping it into the jar of red paint.
He's is able to catch glimpses of himself each time he steps away, at the beautiful hues of red, yellow and orange which decorate his face
that reminds him of the fire that burned his mountain.
The war god steps back and smiles, “You’re sitting so well, Sun Wukong.” he hums as he paints a dot on the center of the other’s forehead, a mirror of his own third eye.
Wukong simply hums his thanks, not daring to open his mouth and potentially mess Erlang up as he paints his cheeks.
He catches another glance of himself in the mirror. It’s funny, the last time he wore facepaint was at that talent show with MK-
His heart clenches at the thought of his student, his former student he reminds himself. Gods, how is the kid going to take all this? How are the others going to react? How is he going to-
“ Wukong, ” Erlang says, breaking him out of his trance. The god is still focused on his painting as he lightly chides him, “Forget them. They’re gone now, this is your new role.”
The Monkey King simply opened an eye to watch him paint. Yes, that was right. He didn’t need to be concerned with all that. Erlang would handle things from now on, he was so kind to take this burden off of him. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of guilt…
“Sun Wukong, you worry too much,” Erlang sighed as he stood up, petting the other’s head (Wukong hoped he didn’t mind how the monkey leaned into his kind touch), “I’ll take care of everything now.” he smiled, “All I ask is that you stay here and behave. Your gege knows best.”
He smiled just the tiniest bit at the term of endearment. Gege . The god considered him a brother. He was so lucky to be held in such regards.
The smile stayed on his face as he closed his eyes, letting Erlang return to tending him.
He was so grateful.