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The battle approaching was imminent, Macaque could feel it. His gut was something he learned to trust long ago, many of his betrayals being clear evidence of it.
He separated himself from the rest of the Monkie Gang to prepare himself for the impending battle against the brotherhood, preferring his own alone time in getting ready. His ears flicked around as he took in the sounds of the mountain, his isolation allowing him easier access to the conversations sparking around amongst the group of people he’d seem to have unknowingly pledged his allegiance to.
Mei was talking with the pig guy, an argument occupying their conversation about whether the monkeys should be equipped with cheap kitchen utensils or actual armor. Pigsy vouched for his culinary armory while Mei quipped back that chopsticks wouldn’t be a weapon that could match the strength of 3 ancient powered weapons.
Macaque found himself chuckling at the attitude Mei held, quite curious to see how his assigned battle partner will fair against the foul mouthed fowl.
He returned his attention back to his own ‘get ready with me to destroy the brotherhood’ routine. After getting his armored skirt securely fastened around his waist, he dramatically draped his scarf around his neck, the flowing fabric briefly obscuring his view.
Those few moments gave the figure entering Macaque’s territory a chance to proceed.
Macaque failed to catch notice of the entity making their way to his side before he felt a pair of warm hands fiddle with his hip armor. Startling, the Warrior took a step back and panned his head to the armor in question being messed with and was suddenly greeted with the sight of Wukong’s hands moving around the skirt piece.
Initially, Macaque froze and looked around.
He scanned his surroundings and checked for anyone that might be peeping at them. No one was here except them, the Shadow intentionally picking a dark secluded cave away from everyone. He relaxed a pinch, relieved that there weren’t any witnesses to see that brief moment of vulnerability, but now his face grew warmer. Especially when Wukong’s hands occasionally ghosted by his hip when moving around the article of clothing.
He hadn’t messed with his clothing since…
…
After letting his mind ponder for a moment he recalibrated and snapped back to the present.
“What are you doing?!” Macaque whisper-yelled.
Wukong looked up with a nonchalant stare as if he isn’t just totally invading Macaque’s space. “Relax, m’just fixing your armor,” he pushed it up a little before standing up, “You still always put it on unevenly.”
Macaque grimaced at the unasked for criticism.
“And you still butt into people’s space without asking.”
Wukong looked down as if Macaque was spewing a bad excuse.
“Ahuh. And usually you’re pretty vocal about that. All those times you were in my ear about ‘doing it yourself’ when the other guys were around. And yet when no one’s here you let me.” Wukong gave an easy grin at the Warrior.
Macaque pouted. He couldn’t exactly argue because Wukong was right. No one was there to see them so he held no real irritation, but he was not going to say that out loud, lest he wants to inflate that pride in the King even more.
“Anyways… why are you here?” Macaque quickly redirected the conversation.
“Just checking in with everyone before getting to Mk. The kid’s nerves are fried so I thought I’d give him some alone time to get himself together.” Wukong moved to lean himself against the rocky wall of the cave, right next to Macaque. The Warrior’s eyes followed him but his head didn’t budge. He felt like Wukong came here more than just to check on him, his body language screaming yearning of some sort. Especially with how close he placed himself next to him. It didn’t help that his tail kept ghosting against his own.
There was silence between them, unusually long silence. The King definitely came here for more than just a check up.
Macaque decided to pry.
“So… you gonna just lean up against that wall and not say anything else? Thought you were checking on me.”
Wukong puffed up, somehow caught off guard slightly by Macaque’s awareness. He actually wasn’t even sure why, he was hoping Macaque would be sharp enough to catch his awkward tension and pry first.
“Uhh.. well.. I was just thinking what you had in mind for us after the battle? Y’know.. cause I don’t want us to just get let off here,” Wukong asked with more timidity than he had anticipated.
The awkwardness of the question put off Macaque, not being super acquainted to this shyer side of Wukong he didn’t even know he had.
He slowly turned his head to the asker of the question with a quirked brow, “Are you a clone or something doing the talking for Wukong? Cause the guy I know would never deliver a question that awkwardly, let alone even communicate a concern like that in the first place,” Macaque snarked with sarcasm littering his voice.
Wukong deadpanned at the wisecrack attitude Macaque was sporting, “Alright, yeah yeah get out your cutting edge sass,” he folded his arms and slouched, “But… I’m serious. Y’know, doing things better than before I think would include communicating, yeah?”
Macaque glanced at Wukong with a light expression, pleasantly surprised at the changed disposition of him. He really had misjudged him before when he initially viewed him as a villain. I guess this was his own ‘doing things better than before’ and not being so shallow with his judgements.
Looking down at his feet, Macaque lightly chuckled, “I guess we should start by not leaving each other,” he looked up and then towards Wukong, “That was our first issue.”
Wukong met Macaque’s eye contact before looking down and nodding.
“And then… we’ll go from there. We are immortal, as Mk said, so we have time to sort it all out.”
Such simple reassurance coming from Macaque brought Wukong’s attention back up to the Warrior. A soft smile outlined his lips, and the Sage couldn’t help himself from smiling back, almost as if it was a chemical reaction ingrained into his biology.
Macaque’s smiles were his favorite, his face looking so peaceful from his usual gruff expressions. It almost makes him forget the eternity long rivalry they held which resulted in so much pain. That smile being the reward for all of it makes it worth it. His eyes panned down to get a good look at his lips, the way they enticingly lined into such a warm expression made him feel warm and fuzzy.
Macaque took note on the way Wukong’s eyes lingered on his face and were redirected down, this extensive sight-seeing that the Sage was doing gave Macaque the perfect opportunity to flip the script on the guy for teasing him earlier about letting him get handsy with him.
A wolfish grin adorned his features, “You lookin’ at something you like?”
Macaque could see the cogs gettin’ back to turning in the King’s head as he flinched at his sudden inquiry.
Wukong didn’t even realize he was staring until Macaque broke the silence, his question laced with a bit of lightheartedness. Macaque’s smile turned into a more playful smirk as he eyed Wukong, awaiting whatever word vomit of a response he’d try to back himself up with.
Wukong looked just about ready to piss himself, his face turning a slightly warm shade, his posture tucking in, his hands fiddling at his waist tie. For sure a newly amusing visual for the Great Sage. Macaque wasn’t sure what exactly went on in that journey to give light to this newer more bashful side to the ever prideful King, but he definitely enjoyed the reactions it gave him.
Amusement morphed into slight concern though after observing how timid the Sage’s body language morphed into. His head was craned down, tail tucked between his legs, his bottom lip being chewed on from anxiety.
Now that wasn’t normal.
He looked as though he wanted to say something but his nerves were clogging up his vocal cords. Even then, that was an unusual reaction from Wukong regarding a thing like that. He never got fidgety or hesitant. If he was being non-communicative, he was just dismissive and brushed off the concern. If he was nervous, he just blurted out what he was gonna say and evaded consequence.
Right now, it looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t know how to initiate. And Macaque was tiring of this extensive battle of who will speak first.
Macaque cleared his throat to catch the silent man’s attention, “Wukong you look like you wanna-“
“Can I uh… can I kiss you..?” The ever so smooth talking Sage civilly blurted out.
Record scratch. What.
If Macaque had a glass of water right now, he’d drink it and dramatically spit it out like one of those conveniently timed cartoon gags.
What happened to Mr. ‘I get stupidly flustered at someone catching me staring’ just a few seconds ago? Wukong truly was a wild card because how can he go from being so unbearably bashful from being called out for staring to boldly asking for a dang kiss.
Worst part is this isn’t even something Wukong should’ve been so awkward about asking . They’ve cuddled, kissed, hell they’ve even slept together naked, so why now is this guy’s stage fright acting up? There was nothing estranged between them on that front.
There was prolonged silence from Macaque, more-so just his brain trying to make sense of the apprehension, but Wukong took that as silent judgment and denial.
I mean, why would they kiss after they just reestablished their reforming friendship. Would Macaque really just throw all they did to each other under the rug for the sake of a stupid kiss because Wukong was still so badly in heartache for him that he couldn’t dare wait any longer?
Wukong’s incredible track record of doing and saying impulsively stupid things still seems to be going strong, much to the Sage’s dismay.
“Shoot- that was a stupid question. I mean… we only just started working things out so being this touchy when we’ve barely even made any progress is probably too bold-,” Wukong started running his mouth.
And Macaque was honestly more in disbelief at how stupid he looks trying to act as if this is some untold request.
I mean, does a 1000 year long rivalry really eliminate all their intimacy beforehand? At the very least it shouldn’t have reduced him down to an awkward teenage boy asking his first crush out on a date.
The relentless word vomit that Macaque predicted was starting to become painful to listen to. Not only because of his sensitive ears but also because of the unbearable embarrassment that came with it.
Macaque lifted himself from the wall he was leaned against. It seemed like Wukong was still trapped in his rambling head, his mouth running faster than his own cloud could go. In fact he was talking so much that he hadn’t registered the figure looming in front of him that then leaned in.
A pair of soft lips pressed against his own.
Then, blip , every thought that occupied Wukong’s mind had cease to exist.
Macaque’s lips were very gently, lightly, pressed against his. The pressure was so light, it was almost like Macaque was requesting permission for the King to complete it.
Wukong’s brain was stuttering, however. Every fidgeting part of his body had stilled.
Sure he deliberately asked for something like this to happen but how often do any of his half-assed plans actually follow accordingly?
Realizing he actually had to physically respond to the Warrior’s silent request, he gently, oh so gently, leaned into the rest of the kiss. The feeling of their lips softly touching each other gave a pleasant little buzz up Wukong’s back. He felt slightly light-headed as the kiss lingered, maybe for about a minute or so.
They parted, and now Macaque got the blessing of seeing Wukong’s awfully red face and ears. He tried his best to stifle a laugh, instead drawing his attention down to his awkwardly placed hands in front of himself. Wukong was now made aware of his fiddly hands, instinctively curling his fingers so they weren’t just dead hanging weirdly.
Macaque carefully took Wukong’s hands in his own, his lithe fingers fingers encompassing his warm, calloused ones into his. The Warrior’s hands were softer and colder, almost like he actively concerns himself with the appearance of his fingers and palms.
Wukong lightly squeezed his hands.
Macaque squeezed back and he looked back up to meet old looking gold eyes staring at him.
Those eyes held so much untold yearning and want.
They’d both buried their mutual care for each other under the guise of anger and hatred. Both of them were for sure angry and hurt by each other, that fact is undeniable.
But… never to the extent that all their past love had to be exterminated and needed to be forgotten. Unfortunately, they both were under the impression that had to be the case. Because If they weren’t eternally angry at each other then what was that argument for?
That fight?
Was it all just an act to uphold their pride?
If they weren’t violently angry then did they both suffer because of each other for nothing?
Macaque had finally come to realize the meaning behind Mk’s words to Wukong.
Making what has been broken better doesn’t mean to shove everything that was shattered under a rug.
Instead you take the broken pieces and you recycle. You make something new with it.
You can’t eliminate an experienced trauma from the human brain, but you can instead replace the memory with a new experience. One that will remind you that you don’t need to be chained to the past, but be reminded of the hopeful future.
Wukong decided to take the lead with this kiss and leaned in, moving slowly to give Macaque the chance to reject if he desired.
He didn’t, however.
He wasn’t going to make that mistake of running away again. Neither of them will.
The kiss was chaste and light, the feathery soft collision of lips sparked goosebumps across both monkey’s bodies. The thumping of a tail subtly echoed throughout the cave, Macaque peaking an eye open to look down at an auburn coated appendage wagging against the stone wall.
Macaque let out a brief chuckle against Wukong’s lips and the flustered Sage promptly pinned his tail to the cave wall using his foot, brows pinching together with embarrassment.
After about 30 seconds of their gentle kiss, they separated. As they parted Wukong opened his eyes, which he didn’t even realized were closed, and looked down at the Warrior. Macaque was already smiling with a slight smirk.
Wukong’s face was absolutely heated, the tips of his ears glowing and his cheeks a noticeable shade of red. The King did not expect for their first kiss in centuries to go this awkwardly or inconveniently.
Their kiss not only taking place right after they just agreed to re-mending their relationship, but also right before they’re about to go into a possible universe ending battle.
Macaque couldn’t help but find the hot, flushed skin and bashful looking face of the King a little adorable. No matter how much Wukong would deny it.
The Warrior leaned his head into the side of the King’s, their cheeks softly brushing against each other. This seemingly more intimate contact made the fur on Wukong’s head and neck fluff up.
Macaque lightly nosed the silky soft fur right underneath the Sage’s ear, his lips lightly brushing over the skin and fluff.
Having the King so riled up, the cunning Shadow decided to leave Wukong with one last little quip, for old times sake.
Macaque quietly whispered in his ear, “ still looks like I’m the better kisser .”
…
“ EXCUSE ME!?- “
The sheer audacity to claim such an outrageous title, and especially after they just shared such a heartfelt moment just a minute prior!?
The comfortable silence they both held, the way their eyes just stared into each other, quietly communicating every concern and fear to each other without ever speaking a word. Some mortals could only fathom just how intimate and close and complex their relationship is. That brief moment of shared silence and embrace was enough to communicate millennia of resentment and tire.
And this guy comes in and RUINS IT-
“That is so incredibly not true!” Wukong half attempted as a defense. Being entirely honest, he has had zero practice in the last millennia, so Macaque probably is the better kisser, but Wukong would be damned if he ever admitted.
Macaque parted from their hand hold and close face contact and started walking off, “Then prove that to me after the battle. Y’know, when the fate of the universe isn’t at stake,” Macaque waved his hand nonchalantly, “And also you have a mentee to talk with!”
Macaque’s voice echoed as he reached a good distance away from the King and seemingly disappeared, assumingely going to meet up with the others.
Wukong pouted a little, remembering that he did have to go talk with Mk.
But he’d certainly prove the Warrior wrong after the fight is over, feeling a little fuzzy at the prospect of an after.