Chapter Text
The Six Eared Macaque was born from a storm - so powerful it lasted centuries - blessed by the moonlight and cursed by the sun; in the eye of the storm, clouds formed an egg, which was nurtured by the winds, carrying the voice of time.
As the years went on, the egg began to crack and from those little glimmers, the winds started to get in and carve its’ embryo.
The storm began to quiet down, little by little, and said egg started to hatch; it was a night of full moon when a white simian with six ears first opened his eyes.
Even if he was a new-born, he already knew how to govern the clouds and the winds and so, the storm disappeared for good.
The cub stared for a long time at the moon, one of his parents, as he flapped slowly his ears, trying to make sense of all that noise he heard.
Once he made sense of the world around, Liu Er Mihou knew almost everything, only problem was that his brain couldn’t hold on all that knowledge at once, so it had to choose what to keep stored and what to use in that moment.
He flew down and landed on the soil: he knew what it was, but actually feeling it beneath his feet was something else.
His whole life would be like that: knowing everything theoretically, just to be amazed to experience anything practically.
He knew what feelings were before he knew he could experience them; the first time he felt something more than just a sensation was when he met Sun Wukong: he knew that the monkey king would be the reason of his own demise, but the feelings Mihou felt were intoxicating. Mihou never felt so alive and the mere thought that one day he’d be heartbroken wasn’t enough to walk away from the future great sage equal to heaven.
Wukong made him feel like he was everything, at least for a good while.
Then the quest for immortality took over and Mihou would be ignored for the sake of the mission.
His white fur slowly became black with aging, and with the aging came the realization that Wukong had some flaws, which were invisible to him in their honeymoon stage.
Nonetheless, Mihou still loved Wukong, he knew that Wukong loved him too, he was now just too busy to prove it. That didn’t mean that Wukong loved him any less… right?
He went to war for him, for fuck’s sake! He’d never mess with the gods to begin with if it weren’t for him.
And when everything was falling apart in heaven (which he knew it would happen, he even tried to warn the others about it, but all ears were deaf to any warning he ever gave), he had to make a choice: leave with the rest of the brotherhood and try to retrieve Wukong with them in another moment or fall with his king.
A funny thing about his knowledge of the future was that he could hear different futures and based on his choices, he’d get one in particular, but he couldn’t control everything: he was following instruction in a maze, the path that he’d choose could still take to a dead end.
Another funny thing was that Macaque never cared about how much he would suffer in the end. He’d just ignore the knowledge that every possible future inevitably brought to the end of the maze, and in that end, he’d die suffering so much he’d wish he were never born.
He hated how his future hearing was unreliable yet immovable. It made no sense! How could he walk many paths but still end up in the same spot?
He realized, once the brotherhood decided that trying to rescue the fallen king was useless, the answer to that question: his destiny couldn’t be controlled just by him because it wasn’t only his destiny.
He could have brought havoc in heaven again to free Wukong, but that would have him locked up somewhere just as Wukong.
He could have tried to bargain for the king’s release, but he’d be turned into a leashed dog of heaven.
If he attacked the heavens and won, he’d ended up dead for using too much power.
And so on, the right decision was trying to free Wukong from the mountain without fighting anyone over it.
Then, Wukong shattered his little heart when he was trying to cheer him up. Anger and hate were awoken; Mihou never felt so angry!
He couldn’t think straight with all the anger he had; it was like a fog obscured all his common sense. And that fog lasted for five hundred years; just like any other feeling started by Wukong, that anger and hatred were so powerful they’d last over a millennium.
So, when he heard Wukong being realised, enslaved, and tortured, something brought him back to his fallen king.
Although he wanted that foolish idiot to suffer, he felt like no one but him could punish him from his sins, and that if the sins he was punished for weren’t even that serious, he had to interfere in some way.
And that meant torturing his beloved just before freeing him from those stupid pilgrims.
He wondered why Wukong was so destroyed from not being believed and being exiled from them.
Did he really care for them?
Then their fight happened, and Macaque felt emotions that were confusing but that fuelled him like never before.
And just like the fog came, it disappeared; now facing a feral monkey king, he tried to talk to him, to get him to stop.
“Peaches, come on, I was trying to free you from this-” he tried, but Wukong just growled at him.
And so, he jumped away from him, catching breath, and let his staff fall into the darkness, raising a bit both of his hands, to show that he didn’t want to fight anymore.
Wukong wasn’t done though: he was on him in a flash, Mihou barely saw the end of the staff before it went thru his eye and skull.
He actually didn’t feel physical pain, the pain he felt was deep in his soul.
Messing with some stupid mortals was enough for Wukong to kill him.
Did he really ever love Macaque? If it really took so little to kill him, even after the centuries they spent together, was it really meaningful as Mihou thought it was?
From his now only eye he felt cold tears fall down, as hot blood wet the other part of his face.
He was alive long enough to feel with how little care that monster took his weapon out of his skull. Then everything went black.
He wasn’t alive, when Wukong realized what he had just done.
He wasn’t alive to hear Wukong rush to his side, to armoured arms lifting his corpse up, shake him as he called his name.
His dying soul didn’t hear his cries, which was ironic, since the desperation of Sun Wukong shook Heavens, Earth and Diyu at the same time.
The ones who heard him were curious about his desperation, who could ever have that arrogant simian scream so loud?
The jade emperor watched from heavens, as an idea was coming to their mind. The monarch didn’t think that a mere journey of fourteen years could ever be enough for punishing that monkey; five hundred years under a mountain were just the beginning of his redemption.
The emperor had to find a loophole to keep on tormenting that ape as he deserved, without enraging Buddha.
How would’ve thought that another mystic monkey was the solution they searched so hard.
XXX
Since he was born, Wukong never really heard silence, his mind was always full of thoughts, and even if he tried to follow each and every one of them, there was always a new one coming up. More exciting, more fun, more.
Once he was crowned the Monkey King, he had to wrap his head around what being a king meant.
Then he got quite bored.
After spending centuries exploring every corner of his island, one day, a little monkey died before him. He was not a stranger to death, he himself killed demons that attacked his troop, he knew what it was, but experiencing in his family was clearly different.
And so began his quest for immortality. It was… slow. Not only because, as one should expect, you can’t find immortality around the corner, but also because the young king got lost in discovering the world outside of his little island.
And so, years after his departure, he was back to his mountain just to save his troop from the Demon King of Havoc, which was, kind of bothersome: he couldn’t go out and search other ways to become immortal if he couldn’t count on the safety of his people.
And so, he went out again and stole weapons before starting the training with his little friends.
And off he went to find a weapon for himself.
Ao Guang wasn’t so fun to be around.
Once he had a weapon fit to the handsome monkey king and went back home, he even made some friends! Demon lords that wanted him to be in their brotherhood, he was never in a brotherhood before!
Life would be so much fun now, wouldn’t it?
Then Diyu tried to get his immortal soul. He was immortal! What part were they not getting?
Raging in hell was fun, he had to admit that. Getting handed a safe way to make himself and his troop immortal was indeed appreciated too. Thank the gods Subodhi taught him to read a bit. He found some interesting text that he wanted to read (he had to beat to a pulp king Yama to read in peace); so, apparently, the sun was actually one of his parents? And there were three other monkeys like him? And one of them was the son of the moon, sort of. He wondered if he could ever meet one of them.
As if someone heard his silent prayers, once he was the stable boy of heavens, there he was: The Six Eared Macaque.
Looking at him, the whole world went silent; the white shining fur, his body, his grace, his soft giggle… everything about that simian conquered Wukong in less than a second.
The love of his life – Wukong decided he was as soon as he saw him – was talking to some gods; they were probably having a party on that balcony, while he was stuck guarding stupid horses. And so up he went, landing next to that gracious creature, not caring about the gasps the gods emitted.
And Liu Er Mihou stopped, looking in his eyes, as astonished as he was.
“What are you doing here, you ape?” some guy asked, just to be shushed by the king’s golden staff being pulled out of his ear.
“Hello there.” Wukong smiled at the object of his desires, resting his hands and chin on what was once a pillar of the ocean.
Mihou seemed to wake up from his trace, blinking, before responding.
“Hello to you.” A shy smile appeared on those perfect lips of his.
Wukong felt the urge to kiss him, he never felt the urge to kiss anyone-.
And his voice, oh gods, his fucking voice.
“I’m Sun Wukong.” He said, his tail wagging excited, what was he supposed to say?
“I’ve heard of you, I’m Liu Er Mihou.” The white furred demon giggled again, and it was as if Wukong could taste honey with his ears.
“You are meant to bow before the higher gods, monkey.” Another one said.
“It’s fine, he doesn’t need to bow for me.” Mihou kept his shy smile on his lips as he observed the monkey before him.
“How come no one bows to me, then?” Wukong was distracted from the love of his life for a moment, looking around. Those fuckers were trying to not laugh at him.
“I’m afraid that heaven gave you a position that has no ranking, Monkey King.” Informed the six eared simian, his tone soft, a reassuring smile welcomed the stone monkey when he looked at him again. “But between you and me, everyone knows what you are capable of.” He chirped to not let anyone else get the message.
The great Sun Wukong blushed deeply.
“Well, I deserve a much better title!” he still said, trembling for the rage.
“You don’t deserve any title, you foolish creature!” said an old geezer.
Understandably, that ended up poorly, with the king throwing a fit and using his staff to put those arrogant gods to their place; Liu Er Mihou stayed behind him, observing the scene, intrigued.
After throwing anyone else out of that balcony, the ginger simian actually stopped to ponder what he just did.
“You might need to hide for a bit.” giggled the macaque behind him, and in a second, he forgot about the matter.
“Yeah, sorry about all this-”
“I’m not bothered.” Mihou shrugged. “I was getting bored anyway.”
And so Wukong stopped, considering.
“Let me give you a ride, they’ll be here shortly.”
And the son of the moon took his hand, sinking in their shadows and taking the other with him.
A second passed, now they were at the limit of the celestial realm, emerging from the darkness.
“Wow-” Wukong took a deep breath, looking even more amazed at the other monkey.
“You should really go.” Said Mihou, letting his hand go.
The king, however, took it back in a flash, holding it tight between both of his hands, before bringing it to his heart.
“Come with me.” The Sun said, looking in the purple eyes before him.
There was silence, but in the end The Moon spoke:
“Why?”
“Why should you stay here and die of boredom when you could come with me?” the ginger simian giggled a bit, tightening his hold on the other’s hand.
“I don’t really think it’s a good idea-”
“I can deal with them if they come to search you, you could go away whenever you want.” Wukong pleaded, his tail wagging slowly.
“Maybe just for a day-” Mihou sighed, but he couldn’t even finish that sentence, since the king smiled widely and jumped off the clouds, dragging him down with him.
When Macaque realized what that idiot just did, he just laughed softly, letting him. A cloud was evoked and so off they went to Flower Fruit Mountain.
Wukong was proud when he was showing his kingdom to his soon to be husband (he felt that they were going to be married soon enough); Mihou was oh, so amazed by his mountain, and the troop liked him already.
Everything was perfect.
“How come you were up there? Did they try to make fun of you with empty title too?” asked the king at one point, while they were sitting under a peach tree.
“No, no, I am a Great Sage, you know, they tried to get a hold of me for a good while and I wasn’t really interested, my sister made me accept the deal and going up there to have a celebration before getting back to ignore them.”
“A Great Sage?” the Sun asked, curious.
“Great Sage Informing wind.” The Moon nodded.
“What do you inform the wind about?” the ginger frowned, looking at him.
The albino monkey giggled a bit, before answering:
“I don’t inform the wind, it’s the winds that talk to me, informing about present, past and future.”
“How many things can you do, exactly?” the question left the king’s lips in a second, not even thinking about what he was saying.
“Many, many things, oh handsome monkey king.” Another soft giggle, as if Wukong didn’t fall in love enough already.
“Well, I feel like I could be a Great Sage.” He huffed, crossing his arms.
“You will be one.” Mihou nodded, smiling at him. “In every future I hear you are one.”
“Really?” the stone monkey jumped on his feet in a second, looking at him with a grin on his lips.
“I swear.” The six eared macaque smiled softly at him.
“And what would that be? Like Great Sage Equal to Heaven?”
“Yeah, just that.”
“That’s awesome! They will finally give me enough credit.” Wukong cheered, hugging the other tight in a flash.
Macaque just blinked, looking at him confused.
“Sorry, I’m just so happy now.” The ginger said, not letting him go.
“It’s fine, I’m just not really used to hugs.” The albino said, still observing him.
“You should stay here with me.”
There was silence between them, both just staring at each other.
“What does the future say? Will you stay here?”
Six ears flapped slowly. A sigh followed, as the macaque leaned more on the ground, relaxing.
“Actually, I will, for some reason.”
“That’s good to know.”
They would have kept looking at each other if it weren’t for the celestial army that came down the skies in order to retrieve Liu Er Mihou and arrest Sun Wukong.
Of course, they were unsuccessful.
Wukong felt so proud, fighting as Mihou watched him with an intrigued look in his eyes; and so, when the armies were on the ground, defeated he screamed at the skies, pointing his staff there:
“I shall be known as the Great Sage Equal to Heaven! And you’ll learn to treat me as I deserve!”
Then he turned back to Mihou, smiling widely at the sight of his grin, before dragging him back behind the waterfall.
And the Heavens caved in on his whims, but still demanded that the Great Sage Informing Wind had to be freed.
“But you’re not my prisoner.” Huffed Wukong, after reading the condition of his victory.
“Let them think that, if they knew I’m here on my own accord, they’d use that against both of us.” Suggested the albino simian.
“Yeah, but I want you to stay here with me. I can handle them.” Protested the ginger one.
“I know you can, I can too, I just don’t want to give them any power on us-”
“Booooooooooooring, what could they do? Come on, we can stay here and ignore them.”
“Don’t you wanna go back up there as the Great Sage Equal to Heaven?”
“Yeah, but I wanna you by my side, I don’t want to see you once in a while in secret.”
A sigh.
“You are sure about it?”
“Of course I’m sure about it!”
And so, the macaque caved in as well, after all, who could anyone win against the handsome Monkey King?
At first, Mihou came back on the celestial plane with Wukong, but then, as the time passed, only the stone monkey would go up there (after convincing the other to not follow him, despite the speeches that the king made).
Soon enough, even Wukong ditched the duties he craved, just to pass the days with the other mystical monkey; and the king’s dreams came true: Mihou fell for him too, they were a couple before they could think about it.
But of course, nothing was ever enough for Wukong.
He had to have more, be stronger, be more immortal.
And so, they all had to fall.
The first to fall was the sun: kneeling down before the enemy that he wanted to face; Macaque was always a better strategist than him, cornered with his other brothers, the moon looked at his mate, growling, before sinking with them in shadows.
How could Mihou abandon him?
Being stuck under a mountain for centuries wasn’t funny at all.
But a few days after his imprisonment, Mihou came for him.
Handing him a peach.
A peach! Like that was supposed to make everything perfect again!
He left him!
How could a fucking peach mend thing?!
After everything he had been thru, his own mate thought that a peach could earn him forgiveness for betraying him!
Nothing would ever be enough for Wukong to forgive him easily; his husband would have to apologize and make up for years for what he did to him! And the bastard even had the audacity of saying that it was Wukong’s fault? How could he ever fall for such an individual.
But then he left, and the king’s rage left with him.
He couldn’t stop thinking about what just happened, the whole scene replaying slowly before his eyes. How could he not notice how pained Mihou was? He had just broken his heart-.
That heart that he worked so hard to conquer.
No matter how many times he called for his mate, no answer ever came back from him.
Next time he saw him was when, before the Buddha, Macaque revealed himself as the impostor that made him suffer for months-.
Not only he abandoned Wukong twice, now he added torture to his already torturing journey? Even try to kill the master that was redeeming him?
If his beloved wanted to play that game, Wukong would play it too.
The king never felt such rage and he had no reason to hold back: Mihou could take it, couldn’t he?
And he did, for a good while.
Then Mihou wanted to stop.
Unfortunately, Wukong never knew when to stop.