Chapter Text
Macaque was vaguely starting to regret his decision as he stood in front of the big boat door, the size of it daunting, the mat beneath him taunting him as it read, ‘Welcome!’ in cursive, with cat paws around it. He wasn’t welcome here, who was he kidding? He glanced off toward the city of Megatropolis, the bright bustling city looking somewhat serene in the night, the lights serving as a beacon in the dark. Macaque sighed and looked back towards the door, he internally kicked himself in the head for showing up in the first place. He wasn't even going to bother until the kid showed up,
“C’mon Macaque! It could be like super fun!” The kid practically cried, his hands together in a begging gesture.
Macaque had ordered noodles on a lazy monday, lounging around his dojo, if he could even call it that. It was a quiet abandoned studio apartment just on the outskirts of the main city, in the more run down area where other criminals resided. He didn’t have money so this is what he had to work with. However today he managed to scrounge up some money from pickpocketing around the city, so he decided to spend it on a little treat of Pigsys Noodles, forgetting that the only delivery driver was none other than-
“Mk- you're doing it all wrong you have to-” The dragon girl started, putting a hand on Mk’s shoulder to get his attention, the kid briefly glanced at her before turning back to Macaque, seemingly determined to get Macaque to show up at this party.
“Macaque it’s just a little get together for Mo’s birthday!” he insisted.
“The cat.” Macaque deadpanned.
Mk’s eyes perked up before shaking Mei off of him and instead putting his hands on her shoulders, shaking her back and forth while looking at Macaque with awe. “Awe!! Mei look! He remembered who Mo was!” he exclaimed in excitement.
“Yeah I could've totes told you that the whole big meanie persona was just an act!! He pretends he hates us but he loves us” Mei cooed, making sure to draw out the love part for extra emphasis.
Macaque just rolls his eyes, he starts to close the door, ready for this dumb conversation to be over before Mk stops him.
“Okay macaque, seriously please come, it wouldn't be the same without you there” He says as his voice takes a more serious tone than Macaque is used to hearing from him. Still, birthday parties had never been his thing, honestly parties in general have never been Macaque's thing. He opens his mouth to turn the kid down again before Mei butts in, placing a solemn hand on Mk’s shoulder.
“Oh Mk it's okay…I mean, imagine if Macaque came! Monkey King would be like sooooo mad” Mei reasons, putting a hand over her heart while looking Mk in the eye, wiggling her eyebrows in a suggestive manner. Mk seems to catch on to what she is scheming as he does a one eighty facing away from Macaque.
“Oh man Mei you’re right! I mean if Macaque came, it would be like a huge disaster! Monkey King wouldn’t be able to sit still with Macaque there…” He trails off sighing dramatically. Macaque let’s Mk’s words sink in for a moment, the thought of Monkey King angrily sitting in a corner, seething at the sight of Macaque hanging out with his friends while he couldn’t do a single thing about it makes Macaque almost giggle to himself. Macaque wasn’t one to start drama just for the sake of drama, but he would never turn down the opportunity to make The Monkey King mad.
“Well anyway mister Macaque, I guess that settles it, if you don't mind us then we will be on our way!” Mei sighs dramatically before tugging Mk to follow her, Macaque vaguely hears Mk starting to protest against leaving, saying something like, “Wait- No, Mei that plan was actually good but I think if we just-”
“You know what? I’ll go.” Macaque chuckles a bit, in his somewhat sinister way.
Mk and Mei turn around to face Macaque, Mk’s surprised face looking comedic next to Mei’s knowing smirk.
“Wait really!?” The kid shouts, running back to Macaque and jumping in excitement. Mei is still standing a few feet away, watching the interaction between the two with interest, a smirk still on her face.
“Yeah, why not? Just don't expect me to stay long.” Macaque reasons. Sure he enjoyed pissing off Wukong, but he still wasn’t a party person. He also wasn’t much of a people person in general, so he tried to make sure Mk didn’t get his hopes up and think Macaque is going to give in to him so easily next time, if he gave in at all.
“Oh yeah totally! Well we should go deliver the rest of these noodles, but make sure to be there! 7 pm sharp!” He yells as he joins Mei, Mk waving his arms frantically as if that will help the monkey remember. The pair make their way back to the noodle van, Mei distractedly on her phone while Mk starts the engine, and with one last look towards Macaque, drives off leaving Macaque to dwell on what he had just agreed to.
So here Macaque was, standing outside the door of Sandy’s boat home, a little cold, and a little regret. He thought back to his home, albeit a little dusty, at least it was warm. Right as Macaque decided this whole thing was stupid, and he should be at home doing something infinitely better than this, the door in front of him opens, the bright lights inside momentarily blinding him.
“Hey Macaque! I was kind of waiting for you to knock but you just stood out there for like five minutes staring at the door, so I decided to open it before you ditched us!” Mk’s cheeky smile greets him.
“C’mon I wasn’t going to ditch you,” (He totally was) “I didn’t know you thought so low of your favorite mentor”
Mk starts to say something before a certain monkey makes an appearance next to Mk, narrowing his eyes in suspicion.
“Uh why are you here?” Wukong angrily asks, jabbing a finger in Macaque's direction. The King was wearing his usual attire, although the breastplate was gone due to the casualness of the occasion. Macaque also noted with excitement that the king looked mad , his tail lashing behind him, and if Macaque listened intently, he could hear the telltale stone heartbeat, beating fast and loud. And suddenly all of Macaque's doubts were pushed to the back of his mind, as he remembered why he was here in the first place.
Macaque crossed his arms, letting out a light huff as he looked at Wukong, his frown on his face going from displeased to disgusted in an instant. The King's voice is like a nail on a chalkboard in his ears.
“I’m here , because the kid wanted his favorite mentor here” He says as if it’s obvious. It was a pretty petty thing to say, but he had to start with the small stuff that irritated the golden eyed monkey, he can’t just start with the heavy stuff, no, he would save the heavy hitters for later, when he could just slip away into the night without a worry of Wukong or the kid following him.
Wukong rolls his eyes easily, Mk next to him watches the pair with a slight nervous flicker in his eyes.
“Oh yeah? That’s interesting because Mk invited me because I was his favorite mentor,” He places a hand under his chin, in mock thought, “in fact- I don’t even remember you being a real mentor in the first place!” At the last part, he steps into Macaque's space, this seemingly snaps Mk out of whatever he was thinking of, as he brightens up, and grabs Macaque's arm as he attempts to pull him inside.
“C’mon Macaque! It’s cold out there, aren’t you cold? I’m like freezi-” The kid rambles but it’s background noise as he notices Mk’s grip on his hand and he feels an uncomfortable pit form in his stomach, he abruptly takes his hand out of Mks grasp, instead scratching the back of his neck as he mumbles, “It’s okay kid I’m not gonna disappear” He tries sounding assured, but it instead comes out as insecure and ugly .
Mk’s expression shifts into one of apology, seemingly coming to an understanding in his mind, as he smiles easily.
“Okay Macaque, follow me! We’re gonna get started on some games!” He says as he finally turns around and walks into the home, Macaque follows, ignoring the burn of Wukong’s stare into his back.
When they all got back inside, Wukong closed the door behind himself, not trusting Macaque. It seems to be behind him (understandably so) And Macaque made his way, leisurely ignoring the startled looks from the people in the room. Mei was on the couch holding a game controller, a smirk on her face at the sight of Macaque. Tang was sitting at the island, talking about whatever to Pigsy as he cooked what Macaque assumed would be dinner. The big blue guy and his cat were nowhere to be seen much to Macaque's relief, he really didn't want to have to wish the cat, happy birthday.
“Hey monkie man!” She whoops a fist in the air much to Macaque’s dismay. The regret is coming back, he really hated attention. “I totes knew you were gonna come! Didn’t I Mk?”
“Oh yeah she sure did, I was like ‘No way that’s gonna work-’ And she was all like, ‘Uh yes way!’”
Macaque was slightly confused, what wasn’t gonna work?
“Hey wait-”
Mei jumps off the couch in an instant, grabbing Mk and shoving his face into the cushion on the back of the couch.
“Anyway! We’re so glad you came!” She exclaimed brightly, Mk’s muffled noises behind her.
“Speak for yourself” Macaque hears Wukong mutter from behind him, and Mei gives him a pointed look, Wukong just looks away. Macaque just takes it in stride, turning to face Wukong, a gross smirk coming onto his face as he remembers what he’s here for.
“Really bud? After everything we’ve been through I thought you’d be dying to see me” Macaque makes sure to emphasize the death part, for reasons he wasn't ready to unpack yet. Wukong looks like he feels the same, his eyes widening for a quick second before going back to that familiar glare saved only for Macaque, and he quickly forgets about that quick second.
“Oh you wish,” He says incredulously, putting his hands on his hips, looking at Macaque like he was the dirt beneath him, it infuriated Macaque to no end. “You want me to care sooo badly, but guess what? You can hang out with my friends all you want!” And with that he just goes next to Mk on the couch, using one hand to get the kid from where Mei had him on the back of the couch, and placing him next to himself. Mei just goes back to playing video games, and Macaque is vaguely aware of the fact that he’s not entirely sure what he’s supposed to do. Their chatter and video game sounds filling the house instantly.
He looked around, and decided to let them be for now, he wasn’t really interested in playing video games, of all things, sure he had his own video game, but that was different.
He eyes Tang sitting down by himself at the island, Pigsy suddenly gone. Tang was easy enough to talk to, Macaque remembers.
He makes his way to the other, sliding on a seat next to him, the noise pulling Tang out of whatever deep thought he seemed to be in as he startled a little, he startled more once he realised who was sitting next to him.
“O-Oh! Macaque! Uh..Hi!” he stutters, pushing his glasses up his nose bridge as he fumble with himself for a brief moment.
“Hey…” He trails off, he didn’t really think this through, what should he talk about? What could he talk about? He sabotaged their whole Lady Bone Demon samadhi fire plan, Macaque winces a bit in his head.
“Um, so how are you feeling?” Tang asks, tentatively.
“How am I doing? I’m good, I’m good..” He replies a bit lamely realizing a bit too late he asked how he was feeling not how he was doing. He feels his cheeks heat up a bit in embarrassment as he hears through all the noise, Wukong scoffs quietly from the couch. He tries to bite back a displeased frown from making it’s way onto his face.
“Well that’s good! I actually wanted to ask you about something…but I didn’t know if we’d ever see each other again so…” Tang trails off, appearing uncertain, his bottom lip caught between his teeth in contemplation.
“Ah well I am an open book so,” He lies easily, he wasn’t an open book, in fact he ripped all the pages out of his book when he came back to the mortal realm. Still, he was only slightly interested in what Tang wanted to ask him.
“Well, I know you’re like a part of Monkey King’s past…but I’m just confused why you aren’t in any of the ancient texts I’ve read? Usually if there’s one of Monkey King’s enemies we run into, I have some knowledge as to who they are but..” Tang averts his eyes and mutters the last bit, but Macaque hears it anyway. He feels his tail swish behind him and forces it to stop, Tang's anxiety was starting to make Macaque nervous, that was definitely why he wanted to flee right about now.
Still, he plays it cool.
“Well I was in his far far past” He attempts to sound wise and enlightening, trying to force down the bitterness he holds for those memories. He tries to forget about their time together, and in a way he has, for he used to see Monkey King as the only person in the entire world who would have understood Macaque, who could've-
“Um, Macaque?” a meek voice stops him from continuing to think about it, he looks back at Tang, acutely aware of how he probably looks right now. Really pathetic Macaque.
“Yeah? My bad man I just got caught up in the memory lane, you know, living for thousands of years weighs heavy on the mind.” He jokes, lazily pointing at his head and twirling his finger in a crazy manner. Macaque slips back into himself, pushing everything into the back of his mind once again. He hopes Tang takes the bait, not wanting to talk about his and Wukong’s past anymore than he has to.
“Oh my gosh you’re right, sometimes I wonder how I’d be if I was thousands of years old-” Tang continues to talk about nothing and Macaque is grateful to not have to continue this conversation. His contentment only lasts for a second before all the lights and the tv turn off. He stands up immediately, on high alert, what was going on ? He turns to Tang who’s joined him on his feet, and Macaque can barely make out his wide eyes looking around the room frantically.
“What's going on?!” Tang not so whispers.
Macaque ignores him as they walk to the middle of the living room, Mei whispering to Mk, who has his staff already in hand, eyes looking around the dark boat as he has a determined look on his face, the Lady Bone Demon really did a number on him . Macaque tries to will away his guilt, he did what he had to do, and what he thought at the time was his only option. He hears them all frantically whisper yelling, and Macaque is about to say they should all exit the boat in case something was seriously wrong, before he feels golden eyes glaring holes into his side.
He turns and he sees Wukong glaring at him, his tail lashing behind him angrily, why? Macaque has no idea.
“Mei why is this happening?” He makes out in their panicking. Still solely focused on Wukong.
“Is there something on my face, Monkey King? ” He grits, man he really hated this guy.
“I know why this is happening.” Wukong’s loud voice stops all chatter, and reminds Macaque that this monkey, albeit an idiot, was a king as his voice calls the attention from everyone around him.
“Why is this happening Monkey king?” Mk asks, uncertain gaze shifting from Macaque to Wukong, the tension slowly building up.
“I’m sure Macaque is behind this.”
What??
“Are you an idiot?” Macaque says incredulously, waving his arms a bit as he processes what just came out of the other's mouth. Did he seriously think he turned off all the lights in the house?
“No, and that’s how I know it was you! You suddenly show up out of nowhere-”
“ Mk invited me?!”
“-And! Your whole thing is stupid petty stuff like this!”
Macaque steps into Wukong’s face, eyebrows downturned and a snarl on his face, ignoring the slight embarrassment he felt at having the king call his shadow work stupid and petty.
“I’m telling you right now Monkey King ” he glowers, he can feel everyone watching them, he’s also pretty sure he can feel Wukong’s breath on him too from how close they were. “ I didn’t do this.”
Wukong’s eyes widen out of their narrowed suspicious glare, but before he can get another word out, most likely accusing Macaque of doing something as ridiculous as turning lights off. All of a sudden there is a bright light pointing to the stairs in the corner of the room, most likely going up to Sandy’s personal quarters, but right there is a disco ball.
“Uh, why is there a disco ball on the stairs…?” Mei is the first one to break the stunned silence.
“I’m more confused where that bright spotlight came from…” Tang adds on.
All of a sudden the disco ball breaks upon and to add to the ridiculousness of the situation, the cat is in between the now split in half disco ball. Mo is wearing a party hat and stands up, and spins around in what Macaque assumed was supposed to be an impressive trick but it only further soured his mood. Everyone’s demeanor relaxes, Mk putting the staff back in his ear as he sighs quietly from relief, Mei putting a hand on her chest and going back to her carefree stance, Tang still seems on edge but there is a tired smile on his face now. Macaque looks in his peripheral vision and he can see Wukong shift on his feet, and his angry stance goes from angry to defeat as he realizes his error of accusing Macaque, to which Macaque just huffs at. Did Wukong seriously think he was just, what, turning lights off and on to scare them? I mean sure yeah he totally would but he can’t help but feel angry despite that fact.
He’s pulled out of his train of thought as music is blasting from somewhere Macaque doesn’t care to know as Sandy comes from up the stairs, wearing his usual attire except with another ridiculous party hat. The music grates Macaque's ears as a pop tune plays to which Sandy starts dancing down the stars, the cat waiting at the bottom for him. Sandy and the cat finish off their little routine by Sandy doing a backflip that makes the whole boat rock a little, everyone starts cheering at this display.
“Oh heck yeah Sandy my man!” Mei cheers, going up to him and dapping him up.
“Sandy, where'd you learn to do that? That was like awesome!” The kid exclaims as he goes up to Sandy and jumps excitedly. Tang just picks up the cat and starts petting him, as if to soothe his own nerves.
“Yeah that was great Sandy but was the whole turning the lights off necessary?” He starts in a chiding tone, obviously the most miffed from the whole encounter by the way he’s stress petting the cat. He interrupts himself as if remembering something. “Hey- wait how were you able to do that?”
Just then there’s some loud clanging upstairs before Pigsy comes rolling down gracelessly, Tang going to him and helping him back onto his feet.
“Sandy, you owe me for that-! I almost broke all of my bones!”
Macaque gets one last look of everyone reuniting, some angry over having to direct lights and some trying to do backflips. Macaque sees Wukong standing a bit off to the side, and he sees the conflicted expression on the King’s face for a brief moment before the King jumps in with the group, the moment of internal struggles seemingly never there to begin with. He shows Mk how to do a proper backflip,even throwing in some extra moves and everyone watches in awe.
Macaque should leave.
He had made a mistake coming here. He thought making Wukong would make him feel better, but he barely got to do anything before the King started accusing him of things he didn’t even do, humiliating him in front of everyone. He regretted showing up, but he’d regret it more if he didn’t do something back to the King. He decides to go outside on the deck to get away from the grating music and the even more grating laughter in the boat.
The last thing he sees is Mk clinging onto Wukong, the latter with a fond smile on his face.
Once he’s outside, he decides to portal onto the top of the boat, sitting with his legs hanging off the edge. He looks down towards the water, his reflection barely visible because of the high distance. The bright light from the city in the reflection made his eyes hurt, he looked away. He tries to calm himself, remembering why he was here. Sure he was here to make Wukong mad but he didn’t expect to be accused of things he didn’t do. He knew he was being dramatic, he just wanted to have an excuse to be mad at Wukong, and he was a bit embarrassed at Wukong for humiliating him in front of everyone.
He hates Wukong, he doesn’t know how the other continued his life after killing him. He supposed he used to kill a lot of people, but Macaque thought he wasn't just another demon, he thought he meant more.
He wanted to mean more.
Macaque scoffs at himself, smiling a bit. He tried not to think about the past but it was hard when the past was laid out on your face. Maybe it was easy for Wukong to forget about everything in the past because he didn’t have the scars on his face as a grueling reminder that the one person who he thought would never hurt him, killed him.
He attempts to push the thoughts away when his ears pick up on something from inside.
“Hey Monkey King, do you know where Macaque went? We’re gonna do cake soon..” He hears Mk whisper to Wukong.
“Nah I have no idea kid, he probably just went home.” The other says absentmindedly. Macaque tries not to scowl at the others' obvious disinterest. He hated it when Wukong would pretend to care, but it still made him roll his eyes at the blatant careless nature Wukong had when it came to him.
“Well um, do you think you can look for him real quick? I really want him to be here, and I would go look for him myself but uh I need to make sure the cake doesn’t turn out as a disaster…” He trails off, nervousness dripping from his words, it seems his wariness around the king was still a thing after the whole Lady Bone Demon fiasco.
“Bud, I’m telling you-” The king exasperatedly starts, and Macaque can hear a soft pat, most likely being the mentor's hand on the kid's shoulder.
“Please, Monkey King” He whispers, and Macaque feels a bit uncomfortable, did the kid really want to hang out with him that much? He tries to not think about it too much, intent on listening to the ‘Oh so holy Monkey King’s’ response.
He hears a sigh, and ruffling of hair.
“You're a good kid bud, too good sometimes. I’ll see what I can do, kay?”
Macaque shifts uncomfortably at the silence that follows, listening for Wukong’s footsteps that move from Mk. Macaque didn’t make an effort to hide but he was sure he had at least a minute before Wukong found him, he slipped away when nobody was looking after all. He tries to not think about memories of them playing games like this, centuries ago when everything had seemed okay.
He hears the telltale sign of the back door to the deck opening, light footsteps make their way around the deck, just below Macaque, if the king was more observant he might have noticed, Macaque chides.
“Macaque?” The king tries,
He debates not saying anything, pretend he really had left after Wukong had embarrassed him, but the thought of proving the king right made his eyes twitch. Plus, he still had some scheming to do, so with reluctance, he replies.
“Up here Wukong” He says, putting his carefully crafted mask on, forgetting about all the pain in the past and fueling it into anger.
The king looks up, and his eyes widen a bit at presumably the obvious hiding spot Macaque was in. The king’s eyes shift over to the space next to Macaque on top of the boat, and as dramatic as he is, summons a cloud to fly over to the dark furred monkey to sit next to him, the cloud disappearing as he took a seat a few feet away from Macaque, his legs in a criss crossed position.
“Why’d you do all of that when you could’ve just jumped?” Macaque asked with a raised brow, turning his head to face Wukong.
“Because I wanted to?” He says a bit rudely. Macaque just rolls his eyes, he wasn’t in the mood anymore for his antics.
“Lazy as ever Wukong.”
“What are you even doing here? Don’t you have anything better to do?” He looks at Macaque, suspicion in his golden eyes as he looks Macaque up and down as if he were nothing. It infuriates Macaque to no end.
“I’m here because the kid invited me, believe it or not, you’re not the center of his world Wukong, especially after that stunt you pulled with the Sahmadi Fire.” He spits. It’s a low blow judging by the why Wukong’s eye twitches, and his tail lashes behind him a bit irritatedly, but Wukong’s done worse so Macaque shrugs it off.
“I don’t know why Mk bothers with you, you’re literally a less cool version of me” Wukong says a bit childishly.
“I’m a less cool version of you??” He asks incredulously, was he serious right now?
“Uh yeah? Have you looked in a mirror? You’re a less handsome, less strong, and less funny version of me!” He says, his legs are unfolded now and his whole body is facing Macaque now. Macaque is sure they looked ridiculous yelling at each other from 3 feet away, on top of a boat.
“Less strong? You wanna fight because I can show you how strong I am” he says flippantly, out of all the things Wukong said, the less strong thing made him feel more irritated than the rest, as he remembers Wukong calling his powers stupid and petty.
“Oh don’t threaten me with a good time of kicking your butt!” The king stands now, getting into a fighting position, and if Macaque were paying enough attention, he’d see the slight smile he held.
But Macaque wasn’t looking as he got up too, dusting himself off before matching the kings stance. He knew the king was stronger than him, but he also knew that he could still put up a decent fight.
They circle each other for a bit before the King lunges at Macaque, attempting to punch him in the face before Macaque uses his shadows to portal behind the King, kicking his back so the king stumbles forward a bit. Wukong recovers easily, turning around and dropping low, swinging his leg downward to trip Macaque, to which he falls on his butt, snarling at the low blow.
“Using powers now? That’s a little pathetic, even for you. I can beat you without them.” He says sneerly while Macaque regains his balance, the King's words only fueling his anger that’s been boiling since he came here.
“ Shut up Wukong.” He sneers as he runs towards the boastful King, lunging at him, making sure to extend his claws. The king’s eyes widened a bit, and if he were in another situation, Macaque would almost deem it as comical. Wukong quickly steps aside, grabbing Macaque's hand and then twisting, causing Macaque to grit his teeth. He felt the King jut his leg behind Macaque's knee, causing him to lose his balance. The dark furred monkey falls to the ground on his stomach with a thump! And Wukong is on top of him, holding his hand behind his back.
“Don’t be so angry bud , you should honestly be honored I even bothered to fight you” He says in that gratingly insincere voice Macaque was all too familiar with. Macaque tries to get out of his grip but to no avail, he already knows his body is going to be sore tomorrow morning from how hard Wukong’s bruising grip is on his wrists.
“I am not your bud ” He spits , squirming under Wukongs hold. His grip tightened, Macaque thrashed harder.
“Well, I The Great Sage-” He was cut off from what Macaque assumed would be a ridiculous spiel about how he was the Monkey King all wise and all knowing. But he never finished what he was going to say as Macaque used a shadow portal, yes he knows it’s overused sue him. The portal opened beneath Macaque, and knowing Wukong’s uncertainty about his portals, Wukong quickly jumped back just as Macaque had hoped, so he would be able to creep up behind the King.
Macaque jumps onto Wukong’s back. Causing the other to fall to the ground, the king manages to turn his body so he was now on his back, Macaque on top of him, holding Wukong’s arm with his hand, and his right foot on top of the King’s other arm, his right leg trapping his legs.
They’re both panting a bit, Wukong hiding it behind a laugh and Macaque behind a disdainful glare.
“Dirty tricks as always Macaque. Dunno why I thought you'd be able to pin me down without them” He says with that arrogance Macaque once had foolishly called well earned confidence. He has half a mind to spit on Wukong, really give him a piece of his mind before he hears something, with all of his hearing focused on Wukong, he barely registered the footsteps making their way around the deck.
“Monkey King, Macaque?” A tentative voice calls from below, the way the King stiffens makes Macaque’s eyes narrow a bit, was he nervous of Mk seeing them like this? The thought makes Macaque both annoyed and slightly proud. Before Macaque can make the decision to embarrass Wukong in front of the kid or let him go out of the goodness of his heart, Wukong with quick and firm motions, kicks Macaque in his abdomen, whilst simultaneously grabbing his arm and not so gently throws him aside.
Macaque falls onto his butt with a “Oomph-!” while looking at the King in shock, which quickly turns into anger, even after all this time the King had the nerve to go easy on him. It made Macaque glare at the King, who was now hopping down to the deck below, without even a second glance towards Macaque.
“Hey kid! Found that idiot up here sulking” he says easily, wiping the dust off his shoulders.
“Hey- you found Macaque?” And Macaque can practically hear the kid light up, for some reason he couldn’t understand.” And he was what- sulking? Why was he-”
The kid is cut off when Macaque plops down onto the deck next to him, a slight frown on his face.
“I wasn’t sulking, idiot, I was just getting a quick breath of fresh air.” He grunted, wow he really needed to get back into shape again if a little spar was wearing him out, though to be fair the spar was with an immortal mystical monkey who had once torn down the heavens. Still.
“Macaque!” The kid jumps to him and hugs him, to which Macaque pries the other off of him with his tail, his face now more an uncomfortable grimace. He tries to ignore the narrowed King's eyes in front of him.
“Personal space bud” He says, trying to ignore how weird his voice felt.
“Ah- right, not a hugger…” He says a bit dejectedly, before he smiles again. “Anyway! We’re about to do some cake so we better-”
“Actually bud, I think I’m going to head home…” Macaque announced, trying to avoid the pairs eyes.
“And why is that?” The King interjected, obviously trying to get the other to stay for Mks sake. It only fueled Macaque’s desire to leave. He really didn’t want to sing some stupid birthday song to, mind you- a cat. He also was genuinely kind of tired from the past forty ish minutes he’s been here. (fifty if you counted the time he spent outside the door)
“I don’t need to answer that.” he chooses to say instead.
Wukong looks like he’s about to object as he takes a step forward, before Mk stops him with a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s okay Monkey King, he can go.” He assured.
Macaque watches as Wukong gives him a smothering look, his tail behind him flicking at the end. Mk just looks at Macaque with a somewhat sad understanding, and Macaque hates it. Macaque owed no one. Not since the Lady Bone Demon, and never again.
Macaque furrows his brows, turning away from the pair, summoning a shadow portal on the boat wall next to them.
“Thanks kid, but I don’t need your permission.” And with that, he walks into the portal.
The last two things Macaque sees is Mk’s hurt expression, hands fiddling with each other, a nervous habit Macaque noticed Mk had.
And then Wukong’s angry glare.