Work Text:
The king feel onto his back with a grunt, baring his teeth at the impact of the ground to his head. His tail flicked in annoyance, that's twice he's fallen during his successor's training. Normally Wukong wouldn't be so distracted, he was an expect at focus, but sometimes he would focus too much on the things around him.
Like the shadows that felt like they were watching him.
Of course, the monkey king knew that the shadows were normal, it wasn't him. But his mind wouldn't get off of the topic of him, no matter how hard he tried to focus on MK, he would break his eye contact with him and glance at the shadows.
What in the name of the Ten Kings was going on with him today?!
Instead of getting back up, he flopped. Resting his beaten body on the ground of the arena and sighed. MK looked over at him after he had put away his staff.
"You alright there, Monkey King? You don't usually go down very easily, or at all," the kid said, the concern laced in his voice made the king groan.
Wukong sat up, "I'm fine. Just a bit distracted today. Nothing serious."
MK doesn't buy it but shrugged anyways, "I'm guessing that means trainings done for today so you can go relax yourself? You seem extremely tired."
"Yeah... Alright, trainings done. Go ahead and pack your things. You can get back to Pigsy's by yourself?" The king pushed himself off the ground despite his body telling him not to.
"I'll be fine, thanks. Bye, Monkey King!"
Wukong waved MK goodbye as he went inside the house to collect his belongings. The king hopped onto his cloud and flew off to the summit of Flower Fruit Mountain. He needs to get something.
At the top, the king carefully leaned down from his cloud to grab a flower. A very special flower Wukong knew that he had always loved. He had kept this part of the mountain in good care, with very well trusted monkeys to make sure that not one flower would die in this patch.
He plucked one of the flowers carefully, holding it close to his chest so the wind wouldn't damage its beautiful natural design. He quickly came down to the hut under the waterfall, in the search for something important.
Inside, he shuddered, making him freeze. It wasn't cold, it was a feeling. Something or someone was watching him, but from where? It felt almost the same when he was training MK.
He shrugged it off, grabbing a vase and leaving the hut and out the waterfall. Dipping the vase into the water to fill it halfway before getting back onto his cloud and rushing off, hoping the uneasy feeling would go away.
Wukong jumped down, vase in hand with the little flower inside it. He guiding himself past the trees, hoping memories would help lead him to the place he once visited everyday.
He entered a forest clearing, small but wonderful in the eyes of the king. It was a circle opening, the afternoon dusk sun shunned through the trees, lighting up the grass blades and a small glass figure. Another vase, clear glass, it was empty, only a few bits of debris inside.
The king took the empty vase and sat it on his cloud, coming back to replace it with the new vase that shined lavender in the dusk of night.
It made Wukong smile softly.
He backed up a few inches, sitting down and crossing his legs, hands laid upon his knees. He stared at the vase, then to what was next to it and why this place was so important to him.
A headstone.
It was a grave that read "Liu'er Mihou."
The king's face twisted, tears welling up in his eyes, he tried to keep his composure. He looked up, trying to keep the tears in, but ultimately breaking when he noticed the moon was full tonight.
Wukong let his head fall, tears copying the motion with it like a flood. The fallen king trembled, he hugged himself as he cried.
A rustling sound made him quiet, wiping his eyes and looking around with twitching ears trying to decipher where this thing may be.
Nothing. The noise stopped. A minute passed by. Wukong could hear his heartbeat, it was rapid and heavy. The sound never came back, so the king calmed himself, breathing in and out to relax.
He folded his legs in, sitting atop his feet as he adjusted the vase a little bit. Sighing as he closed his eyes as he began to think the words he wished to tell him.
Two or three minutes passed with him silent, eyes closed and quietly 'praying.' He had more to say, but was stopped when the smell of lavender came into play.
He never put anything scented on the grave? He didn't want animals to get attracted to it. Even if it was very overgrown and in desperate need of a cleanse.
Wukong opened his eyes, there in front of the grave and next to the flowers was a light purple candle, lit and admitting the scent of lavender.
Then he noticed the presence that sat next to him. Looking over, embarrassment flooded his face and he turned beet red, but he kept still.
Sitting next to him was Macaque, the very being of which this grave was for.
Silence fell deafeningly.
Macaque never once looked at the king, his focus was on the headstone. He looked calm, but also conflicted with himself.
Wukong eventually sniffed up the lavender scent, helping him calm down from his embarrassing inner outburst. He stopped staring and his eyes went back to the grave.
Awkwardness had sat in.
"I didn't know I had a grave," Macaque finally said, his voice almost emotionless but Wukong only cared for the silence breaking.
He cleared his throat, "Uhm. Yeah. I had- I made it."
Macaque huffed, the king couldn't tell what he was feeling or what his tone was trying to tell. Moment like these is when Wukong could never tell what the other was thinking, it frustrated him as much as it scared him.
Anything that had to do with Macaque's emotions towards Wukong scared him.
"I saw you training. You seemed distracted," Macaque's sight never once left the grave, he wasn't even blinking and Wukong was looking at him concerned before processing what he said.
"Is that why I kept getting the feeling that someone was watching me?"
The darker monkey chuckled quietly, "Did I distract you from your teachings?"
Wukong scoffed sarcastically, "WHAT? NO—"
He paused when Macaque was looking at him.
His eyes were full of nothing, an empty void.
The king quieted himself, stuttering his vision from Macaque and the grave. He picked at his fingers, playing with the fur at his wrists nervously. He could feel the eyes next to him almost burning into his heartless soul.
"Why did you come here?"
"Because I miss him," he didn't hesitate to answer the question he saw was coming.
Macaque was confused by that, "But I'm alive?"
"Macaque is."
That confused him even more.
"Liu'er Mihou isn't."
...
Oh.
Wukong missed the old him.
The Great Sage missed the friend he killed.
Macaque spat with annoyance and sat back relaxed, closing his eyes and taking in the lavender smell, "And he isn't coming back."
A choked sob interrupted the darker monkey's relaxation. He peaked out at Wukong, seeing him hunched over, curling up and arms around himself, he was shaking. Macaque looked down, the king's tail was practically between his legs if it weren't for him sitting down, but it was twitching and stuttering with its movements.
Wukong was crying.
The Monkey King was crying over some useless, damned no good shadow demon like Macaque.
He sighed, looking around to try to change the topic, "I bet the stone looked pretty back then."
The golden monkey sobbed, looking up at the gravestone. He sniffled as he regain his composure, "Yeah. I- I used to put flowers here every day, cleaning it and making sure no animals came near it to r-ruin it..."
Macaque listened as he watched the candle light flicker in the moon's rays.
"But I could only care for it for a few years before I couldn't... take it anymore. I stopped visiting and forgot about it. I.. it was an attempt at closure, I guess."
That isn't a very healthy closure, Macaque wanted to tell him, scold him for neglecting his health over and over again throughout the centuries.
"You know..."
Macaque looked back at the poor king.
"This... What I did to you was the first and only time I had wished I didn't eat the Peaches of Immortality," he turned his head to the other, tear stained and blood shot.
The darker simian didn't want to believe what just came out of Sun Wukong's mouth.
The Sun Wukong wished he wasn't immortal... because he had killed Liu'er Mihou?
"You're kidding right."
The king shook his head.
His eyes fixated on the dark-furred monkey, searching for any kind of smile or hint that he might laugh at him for saying such a thing.
The thing that messed with Macaque was that he didn't say anything along the lines of "I regret killing you" and instead went for "I wish I could've joined you."
The shadow rested his face, looking down at the vase with the flower. He stared at it, noticing in the corner Wukong shifting to curl up on himself more, disappointed at the reaction.
Macaque shifted closer to the king, "What kind of flower is this? I remember it but I never knew its name."
"It's a Purple Hyacinth."
"Does it have a meaning?"
It went silent.
"Wukong?"
"...Yes?"
"What does the Purple Hyacinth mean?"
He looked away, "Sorrow."
"That's it?" Macaque tilted his head.
"Regret," he hiccuped, fighting back crying for a third time in the past hour.
The shadow nodded, moaning in understanding and realizing why Wukong chose this flower. Not just because Macaque loved it.
He expected that was all the little purple fluffy flower meant.
"And forgiveness."
Ah.
Should've seen that one coming.
That was it, that was as long as Macaque was going to stay. He sat up, annoyingly scoffing as he picked up his lavender scented candle. The tears Wukong was holding back broke loose when the other started walking away.
That wasn't what he wanted.
But he knew he wasn't going to be forgiven.
Not at all, not ever.
"Wukong," Macaque started.
He looked behind him at the shadow.
"A stone tablet isn't going to forgive you for who you've put underneath it."
Wukong paused, looking at the ground as he moved back to face the grave and flower, hugging his legs.
"I know."
"Then stop moping at a useless stone and ask for forgiveness from the real thing."
The king heard the sound of a shadow portal opening, then it was dead silent.
Macaque had left.
Wukong was alone again.
He groaned, getting up and leaving the clearing. He just wanted to visit it and calm down, not add more problems and worries to himself.
He'll go groom himself and sleep with the monkeys, hopefully that'll clear his mind.
Calling his cloud, he flew back to the waterfall.
Above, the moon was at its peak, shining down on the gravestone as a single Hyacinth petal fell.