Work Text:
Dokja quietly sat still, legs crossed like he was a child again, eagerly listening as his mother read him a story. His white coat was folded beside him, his black sleeves folded up, and his shoulders were hunched forward.
A book sat in his lap, held like a delicate artefact in his hands, and his eyes slowly slid over the pages. He could feel his skills whispering behind him, urging him to use them and finish reading, but this wasn’t for a scenario. This wasn’t for a game, or story.
It had been a while since he’d sat and read a normal novel. Felt the soft cover in his hands, felt the edges slowly fraying and becoming worn thanks to the hands holding it. No matter how carefully you held a soft cover book, the edges always became worn. He’d almost forgotten.
He heard the near silent footsteps behind him, but Dokja’s attention stayed firm in the book, sliding slowly over the words as he absorbed them, imagining the scenes in his head.
A shadow crept over his head and into the book. “What’s that?”
“A book.”
The figure behind him was silent for a moment, before snorting softly and crouching behind his shoulder, peering at the words. “About?”
The corner of Dokja’s mouth twitched. “Three doors.”
The uninvited guest nodded slowly, and Dokja chose to ignore the whistle of blond hair he could see in the corner of his eye.
He didn’t say anything else, but after a small moment of thought, he closed the book and re-opened it to the first page.
The Great Sage, Sun Wukong, didn’t respond for a moment, still crouched behind his little brothers shoulder, his monkey tail swaying slowly behind him, before he huffed and sat down.
Dokja let his eyes slide over the first page again, his shoulders relaxing a bit more as he felt a chin rest on one of them, and his body leaned back.
He read alongside the monkey behind him, turning the page whenever the sage grunted, and for a moment, he wondered if this was what his mother felt all those years ago.
Calm and… happy, sharing a story with family.