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Death in the life of every being is the natural order of things. This simple truth did not satisfy Sun Wukong, who feared death enough to remove his name from the book of the dead, learn mystical magical arts, and even steal the wine and peaches of immortality. All this caused him a lot of problems, but it served its purpose, making the monkey king immortal and practically indestructible. Wukong was content in his sort of retirement, knowing he had all the time in the world at his disposal.
The problem arose when he met Mk and his enemies suddenly remembered the monkey. Then the thought of death came to him again when the whole team was sitting after the fight with Azure Lion, and Mk tried to stay conscious despite the fatigue and wounds that Pigsy and Tang were tending to.
Wukong once again realized how fragile his student was, and he wouldn't always be able to be there to protect him.
Since then, the monkey demon had been wondering how to approach the topic of immortality with his student, but he was afraid of rejection. He tried to subtly find out something about Mk's views on the subject, but to no avail. After many weeks of reflection and moments of doubt, the demon made a decision and tricked his student into feeding him the peach of immortality, despite feeling guilty. Wukong went all the way to the celestial realms for it, going to the trees at the very end of the garden with the largest and most ripe fruits, picking a few and running away before anyone could notice him. For the next few training sessions with Monkie Kid, the great sage equal to heaven kept sneaking him peaches, guiltily watching the unknowing young adult shed his mortality. The only hope left for the monkey king was that Mk would be able to forgive him.
~~~~~~
Mk had the impression that something was wrong. The Megapolis was peaceful apart from minor attempts by various demons to take control, which the boy dealt without any problems. However, the young hero had a feeling in the back of his mind that he was missing something, that he wasn't seeing something. Additionally, his mentor seemed terribly withdrawn every time he visited, only pretending that everything was fine. Mk tried to raise this topic with his mentor more than once, but the mentor only bombarded him with excuses and the boy was unable to find out anything, despite many attempts.
“He just ignores me and shrugs off the topic every time I bring it up! I'm worried something's wrong." he confessed worriedly as he looked through various clothes in the wardrobe, some of which he couldn't even describe.
“Mk, tell me honestly, why are you telling me this when you know perfectly well how much I care about Wukong?” Macaque asked tiredly as he applied his makeup in his human form.
“You're on slightly better terms than after the battle with Lady Bone Demon, and they may not be great, but at least try to check him out, please?” Mk begged the demon, abandoning the rummage in his wardrobe and coming closer.
“We are only on better terms because of you, not because of my or his will.” informed six-ears.
"Because? No thanks? Never mind, anyway! Please, if not out of the goodness of your heart, then do it for me.” Mk asked while making his famous puppy eyes, to which Macaque looked blankly before going back to finishing his makeup and the hero was about to accept defeat when the monkey answered him.
“Okay, but if he kills me again, I blame you.” the demon informed.
"Thank you! He won't kill you, I'm sure of that." laughed the young adult, leaning on the monkey demon's head.
“But I'm not so sure about that. Okay, go away, I have a show soon and you're interrupting me." the demon replied with a smile, waving his hand at Mk as if he were swatting away a pesky fly.
"You hurt me! Maybe I wanted to sit in the audience and watch a show without having to fight the shadows of my friends." Monkie Kid snorted.
“I won't stop you, but today I'm staging a play of romance, so you'll fall asleep during the first lines anyway.” the demon replied with a shrug, watching his reflection appraisingly.
“You're right, besides, I promised Mei that I'd come over to torment Red Son with her today and act as their chaperone. You look great, remember to visit Wukong and see you soon!” the boy said goodbye, taking the staff out of his ear and heading towards the arcade where he had an appointment.
Macaque just shook his head with a smile and went to get dressed for the show. The Monkey King could wait, but his fans and viewers couldn't.
~~~~
Six-Eared Macaque should have known long ago that Mk is rarely wrong about Wukong, but in his defense, 'something's wrong with the Monkey King' was practically an everyday occurrence in his dictionary. However, the demon intended to keep his promise, so the next day, as soon as he managed to leave the nest, which always seemed to be the most comfortable place in the universe after waking up, he teleported to the Flower Fruit Mountain. Satisfied with the quick journey, he passed through the waterfall, the security of which Wukong had to adapt to accommodate the mass of his student's friends, causing it to become more like an automatic supermarket door than an enchanted passage. The black-haired demon didn't complain, slowly walking towards the king's cottage, greeting the monkeys along the way. Of course, the four of them who had had an adventure in the memory scroll immediately ran to him, telling him about the recent events that had happened in this place, which they thought were interesting. The monkey demon listened with one ear to the stories of the four teenage furry musketeers, and with the other he listened to where he would find the owner of this place.
He found the monkey king in his hut that Mk had set him up to help rebuild, and not only him, but everyone having free access to the waterfall, even though Wukong literally could have just slept in a tree and everything would have been fine according to the black demon. Unfortunately, for many reasons, he was still censored in most cases and had to put in more work, although he had to admit that it was not as difficult and boring as he had imagined. Wukong was lying on the floor, and some animated series was playing in the background on TV, which Macaque didn't even spare a glance at.
“What's wrong, your highness, the couch is too soft?” the one-eyed man asked slightly sarcastically, only after a while noticing that the great sage equal to heaven... was crying. “Hey what's up?!”
“Get out.” Wukong only replied, covering his face, and the panicked monkey demon sighed a little in relief upon hearing this.
“Nuh uh.” Macaque only replied, moving closer.
“What do you mean, ‘nuh uh,’ this is my house!” replied the king, growling and showing his fangs, at the sight of which, despite his growing anxiety, Macaque pretended to remain indifferent.
“Mk sent me because he's worried about you. Tell me what it is and I can disappear.” the demon suggested, standing next to the fallen demon's head and folding his arms over his chest.
“You are really henpecked.” Wukong snorted, making no other move.
“But at least I'm not crying on the floor.” replied the six-ears, heading to the kitchen in search of something edible, sensing that it might take a while.
“Tell him everything's fine, there's nothing to worry about, and that you'll never set foot here again.” the tired king ordered him.
“Uh, of course, and what's more, it turned out that you were chosen to be the deity of silence and mercy.” the black-haired man snorted, opening the cabinets one by one.
“Maybe Mk would believe it.” Sun Wukong muttered quietly, slowly getting up from the ground, guessing that this would not get rid of the intruder.
“I guess he is the only one. Seriously, it's amazing how he believes in you and trusts you. This brings us back to the reason for my very pleasant visit. What's wrong with you that Mk noticed?” Macaque asked, disappointed to find nothing on the upper shelves but dust.
“Nothing, really.” Wukong tried to be convincing, but even after many years of life, he was still a terrible actor.
"Yes definitely. I literally just found you on the floor crying like a baby.” the demon pointed out with a smile.
"It's not true!" the demon with golden-red hair was outraged.
“Wukong, we have known each other for a long time and you know that I can and will play this whole 'I'm fine' and 'tell the truth' game all day and longer, so spare me the work and your nerves and tell me what it's about.” Macaque suggested sensibly, glancing expectantly at the homeowner.
"I can't. Not to you, not to him, not to anyone.” Wukong sighed heavily as he sat down on the kitchen chair.
“Okay, now I'm starting to get scared.” Macaque announced, sitting down in the chair across from him.
“I did something stupid.” the king admitted, wrapping his arms around himself and avoiding the other demon's gaze.
“It's nothing new, but based on your behavior, I'm guessing this was a new level of stupidity.” Macaque concluded calmly.
"You could say." the monkey king nodded in agreement.
“You're starting to terrify me.” informed the black-haired man in a calm tone, but a cold shiver ran down his neck, waiting for further words from his company.
“I know one day I'll have to tell him or he'll find out on his own, but I'm afraid he'll hate me when he finds out, so I want to postpone it. At the same time, my nerves are eating away at me and I can't enjoy the moments when Mk still cares about me." explained the great sage, rubbing his arms.
“Phew, you've really got me worried. Wukong doesn't seem like there's anything you could do to make him hate you. Which is a bit unfair, by the way.” Macaque said with relief and went back to searching the kitchen for food.
“Believe me, I would like to believe it.” replied the sad monkey king, who after a moment tensed all his muscles when he saw the demon reaching for the locked shelf. “Don't open it!”
However, it was already too late, because Macaque used his powers to open the cabinet and look inside, prompted by the host's scream. However, despite everything, he did not expect what he saw, even though he had known Wukong for a very long time. There were seven huge, juicy peaches in the cabinet, glistening in the rays of light entering the room. The shadow master had only seen such a fruit once in his life and had never forgotten what it looked like or what it tasted like, and the monkey king's reaction only confirmed his suspicions. Being an intelligent creature, Macaque immediately put two and two together and turned to his host indignantly.
“You wanted to give Mk the peaches of immortality without him knowing?!” the furious demon screamed, but seeing the shame and suffering on Wukong's face, anger immediately turned to disbelief. “You already did it, right?”
The monkey king had the decency to remain silent and look away.
“Wukong, are you completely crazy?! How could you?! Mk trusted you!” the six-ears screamed, coming closer and starting to shake him in anger.
“I had no other choice.” the golden demon announced.
“You had no right!” Macaque denied.
“You don't want him to die either!” the host shouted back, breaking free from the demon's grasp.
“No, I don't want to, but I can't force him or decide for him! Certainly, after some time, this topic would come up and WE would talk about it, considering various options. You had no right to interfere!” growled the shadow master, trying to control himself.
“I can't lose him.” the demon said, his voice breaking.
“And what have you done? Do you really think you can keep him with you this way?” Macaque snorted, rubbing his temples.
“I'm begging you, don't tell him anything.” Wukong began to plead.
"No. I'm not going to lie to him." the six-ears replied with a coldness the monkey king had never heard in his voice before.
"Please! I'll tell him, but give me some time! Just don't tell him anything." the terrified demon cursed.
"He doesn't have to." a voice said from behind them, and they both immediately turned around, seeing none other than Mk in the doorway, whom neither of them had noticed or heard before.
And now the young adult stood in the doorway, watching the two demons without showing even the slightest emotion on his face.