Work Text:
“Okay, children, today you will draw your families!” the teacher announced happily, and most of the students immediately got to work.
The same with Mk, who had only one person to draw, but the boy tried his best to make his picture as good as possible. His Pigsy always said that Mk was a great artist. Maybe he should draw Mr. Tang too?
“Xiaotian, what are you drawing?” asked the teacher, approaching the busy boy.
“I'm drawing Pigsy!” the kid replied happily, sticking out his tongue as he drew.
“Xiaotian, your task was to draw your family.” the woman repeated, shaking her head.
“Pigsy is my family.” denied Mk.
“Xiaotian, your legal guardian is a demon and you are a human. So you can't be a family." the teacher explained slowly.
"But why?" the boy asked, not understanding.
“Because that's the way it is. If you don't have a family to draw, maybe draw a flower? the woman suggested, moving towards another child, taking the pig demon's drawing, crumpling it and throwing it into the trash in front of the small child.
Mk felt tears welling up in his eyes and wordlessly headed to the restroom, stealing his ruined drawing from the trash along the way, where he locked himself in a stall and began to cry. 'Is that why Pigsy doesn't want me to call him daddy? Because he knows we're not family?' the sobbing six-year-old asked himself, clutching the crumpled paper to his chest. He was very sad because he always thought that they were a small but unusual family, but it turned out that this was not the case. The boy cried in the toilet for a long time, wondering what he had done that no one wanted him and couldn't have a family. That day, Mk stopped trying to call Pigsy daddy.
~~~~~~
The young hero was just returning from a delivery when he was immediately greeted by Bai He at the entrance of the restaurant, waving at him with a smile as Macaque gave her some interesting hairstyle, arranging her hair so the white streaks that had resulted from the Lady Bone Demon incident wouldn't be visible.
“Brother! Do you have a moment?" the girl asked as soon as Mk crossed the threshold.
“Sure, always for you.” the boy laughed as he approached and greeted the monkey demon who almost lived in the restaurant. “So what happened?”
“I need help with my homework.” the girl replied, taking out a purple fluffy notebook with a cat printed on it.
“Sure, how can I help you?” Monkie Kid asked, sitting down next to him.
“I need some information for a report, and Pigsy is busy, Sandy has yoga class today, Tang is at a lecture, and I can't call Monkie King.” Bai He informed, and Macaque only muttered something under his breath.
“Okay, sure, I'll be happy to help you.” Mk smiled, texting his boyfriend that he was busy and would contact him later, to which Mei promised to take care of Red Son until then.
“Okay, let's start with how Pigsy and Tang became a couple and got married.” said the girl, looking at Mk expectantly, who was slightly surprised by the question, but thought about his answer.
“From what they told me, they met before Pigsy opened his own restaurant and Tang was still in college. They became friends, and after opening the restaurant, Tang began working part-time as a delivery man, in between lectures and eating at Pigsy's. However, they only came together after my appearance, when Tang began to help more and more often in matters related to me. They got married five years later, and I carried their wedding rings and scattered flowers.” summarized Monkie Kid.
“Yhym. Okay, what about Sandy?” asked the girl.
“Pigsy said they were friends in their youth when they were both at a difficult point in their lives, and he even met me as a child, but he wasn't in therapy then and wasn't the Sandy we know. Later, I officially met him when I got the staff." replied Mk.
“Are Sandy and Huntsman just a couple or something more?” the twelve-year-old asked.
“As far as I know, they are a couple and haven't talked about getting married or engaged yet.” replied Mk, starting to eat the noodles that Pigsy placed in front of him, immediately returning to work, and his little sister nodded.
"All right. It's your turn, Red Son is your boyfriend and also Mei's girlfriend, but you two are just close friends?” Bai He asked.
"Yes." confirmed Mk.
“Monkie King is your mentor and you are related in some way, but you don't know how? And you both come from a stone egg?” the girl asked.
"Exactly. Why do you need this for school?” Mk asked the interested boy.
“You'll soon find out! Thank you for helping me, big brother, now I have everything I was missing.” Bai He smiled happily, leaning on the monkey demon who had already finished her hairstyle, and Mk dropped the topic, especially since there was a lot of traffic and he already had several deliveries to deliver.
~~~~~~~
A few days later, Bai He handed out invitations to everyone to come to her school for the family day. The invitations were made by a girl, although Mk saw something familiar in them, but unable to pinpoint what, he shrugged and forgot about the matter.
The entire team found themselves at school, where the twelve-year-old girl informed them that she was also performing on stage, to which Macaque puffed up with pride as if it was his doing, which Wukong pointed out to him and the monkeys began to argue. The family spread out, wandering around the various stalls, browsing through the small markets, taking part in various games, in Mk's, Red Son's and Mei's case, and sampling the food prepared for the festival.
At one point, when it was time to go to the auditorium where the children were to perform, Mk saw out of the corner of his eye his old primary school teacher who had never liked him, always calling him 'Xiaotian' despite his repeated requests, about calling it Mk. The boy quickly pretended not to see her and ran away to the hall to wait for his sister's performance.
At the very beginning, some children said poems and sang lovely songs, then there was even a short performance that entertained the audience. Only at the very end did a figure familiar to Mk appear on stage, which seemed a bit nervous, as if it had a bit of stage fright. Macaque immediately began creating various shadow figures that were only visible from the stage, calming the girl down with an improvised shadow play.
“Hello, my name is Bai He and I am twelve years old. On the occasion of this festival, one of my teachers told us to write a paper about family. Unfortunately, she didn't like my work and wanted to give me the lowest grade because, in her opinion, I wrote off-topic, which I did not agree to and I told my class teacher about it, who also checked my work and decided that I should present parts of it here, because it is so good.” the girl began, tightly gripping the microphone in one hand and some slightly crumpled pieces of paper in the other.
"What is it about?" asked Tang, who was about to go look for the teacher for an explanation when Macaque stopped him.
“Wait a minute, you want to hear this, trust me.” said the demon.
“The topic of the essay was 'My family and our history'.” the girl started again, starting to read from the paper. “My family is special. I have two dads, an amazing older brother, a cool uncle with lots of cats, and a godfather who is my guardian demon.”
Everyone in the room laughed at the girl's words, even though they had no idea that she was telling the truth, although to the joy of the family, Macaque also seemed surprised by his own description, but no less pleased.
“I need to change his contact name to this.” Mei whispered, taking out her phone.
“My dad, Pigsy, has a restaurant with the best noodles in the world, which he cooks with passion. Apparently it was this passion that made him meet my second dad, Tang, who was still in college at the time. Their friendship turned into affection only when my brother appeared in their lives. He is also special because Mk was born from a stone egg like the great Monkie King, who also somehow became my honorary uncle. My parents had a small and simple but beautiful wedding when my brother was about my age, being one of the most important guests at their wedding. Unfortunately, life was not always colorful and because of this, Mk did not have the opportunity to meet our beloved Uncle Sandy for a long time, who is the gentlest person in the world, although he has great strength, which he only uses to defend our family. My guardian demon, Macaque, saved me after LBD stopped needing me, if it wasn't for him I would have definitely been hurt a lot. Since then, he has become my protector and hero, even though he keeps saying he's not a hero, he is one to me. Uncle Wukong also appears often, mostly sharing some stories from his life, but he also often brings gifts and video games. He also spends a lot of time arguing with Macaque, which my parents believe is some kind of mating ritual, but I'm not sure how they're doing with this ritual.” once again the girl's statement was interrupted by laughter from everyone except the two monkey demons, who suddenly began to look away from each other.
“I wonder who it could be?” Mei hummed towards them, and Macaque showed her a certain vulgar gesture, which made the chaotic trio start laughing.
“As we near the end, I would like to mention again my brother, who is a great hero, not only saving the world, but also always being there for me when I'm in a bad mood. Mk always knows how to make me laugh and improve my mood. His boyfriend Red Son and best friend Mei are his constant companions and if they ever turn against him they will have to deal with all the adults I mentioned and me, but as long as they make him happy they are safe. Mk is the center of our family and I am happy that I can call him brother and that he calls me sister. This is what my unique family looks like, which is of different species, passions, lifestyles and characters, but I wouldn't exchange it for anything." the girl finished her speech, and Mk stood up and started clapping for her with tears in his eyes.
After bowing to the audience, Bai He ran to her little family, hugging everyone and receiving many compliments about her work. The twelve-year-old was smiling all the time and Mk was proud of her.
The teenager finally realized that his school teacher was wrong and that he has a real family who is around him and cares about him. The funniest thing was that his adopted sister's homework led him to these conclusions.