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nekohime19 · 3 months ago

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Heart behind the lie # 18 : New year

New years us coming and the gang organize a party

“I'm not even living’ cause I want to but ‘cause I don't want to die.”

The words echoed in his head, blurry memories of what happened when he was cowering in his mind, fragments of sounds, of talks he lived through without really being there.

“I thought… I thought you liked me, maybe I was just delusional. It hurt, to be killed like I'm nothing. You made me feel like I'm nothing. I'm still feeling like I'm nothing.”

He recognized this voice. How could he not when he knew it from such a long time, when he had longed for it for most of his life. But it sounded burdened with uncried tears, on the verge of fading.

Sun Wukong woke up with a struggling breath, he took several seconds to recollect himself and grasped the scarf neatly warped on his neck. Sock, who was sleeping beside him, woke up with a startle “mrrp?”. She walked towards him and rubbed her head against his sides, purring soothingly to calm his frantic breath. Sun Wukong turned and curled around her, encircling her like the sun encircled the earth at dusk. Sock meowed happily and welcomed his embrace with glee, she found her place in-between his arms and closed her eyes.

The sage breathed in the familiar scent of his little lady, nose burried in her fur, tail coiling around her, and focused on her heartbeats. He felt good, here, cradling her in his arms. He liked to be like that, to protect, to curl around someone, it soothed the primal need of his nature, of his protective side.

He stayed here for a long time, waiting for the rise of his little lady, playing with her tail and giggling each time she hissed at him for disturbing her beauty sleep. She never clawed at him, even if he annoyed her daily, instead she pushed him away with her cute pads. And how he loved pads, they were so soft and cushy, he adored covering them in kisses, for the great misfortune of his cat who didn't like his kisses that much.

Sock woke after a few more hours, like always she jumped out of the bed, pushing him away to escape his embrace, and hurried towards her bowl. Sun Wukong followed after her, the scarf still on his neck, and shushed her demanding moews with food. The sage didn't eat, instead he watched his little lady wolfing her food like it would disappear, mind lost in his dreams. It wasn't the first time he dreamed of past memories, his time as a feral monkey always resurfaced through his nights, even sometimes through his days.

Sometimes the memories were joyous, fragments of light times he spent by his moon sides. But, on a few occasions, he relived some worrying things. Scenes of anguish, of pain and tears. Some words sliced through his chest, crushing his already quite frail heart. “I'm not even living’ cause I want to but ‘cause I don't want to die.” It worried him. He wanted to run towards the warrior, and to cradle him like he cradled his cat, to hide him, to cover him, to have him in his arms, the safest place on this mountain. But he knew he couldn't, he knew it would break the fragile bound they managed to create.

Macaque never asked him for magic, never revealed why his body ripped itself apart. So far, the sage had been lucky enough to convince the other, to make him indulge his worried heart, to make him accept his magic. He gave and gave and gave, and Macaque always seemed troubled, as if he shouldn't accept his magic, as if it was a sin in itself to ever hope for any sort of help coming from him. And it worried him to no end, it haunted him at nights. Sometimes, he would dream of it, of Macaque ‘s corpse, laying cold and stiff, as if made of wood. And he would try to give him magic, to give him life, but nothing worked, Macaque would lay, unresponsive.

Sun Wukong, even if he acted like it sometimes, was no fool. He was old, he lived enough to see empires rise and fall, even if Macaque wasn't revealing the truth, the sage was wise enough to gather some clues. The warrior’s state was odd, his body seemed to need magic to even sustain itself, something that would normally not be possible. Magic could certainly be a life force, but it wasn't meant to be the drive sustaining the body of living beings.

Those who lived were driven by blood and air, their body didn't need life, it was life itself.

And he feared this, because if Macaque's body couldn't sustain itself, couldn't live without magic, it meant it wasn't the body of a living being. Sun Wukong knew he killed his moon, but he thought the other was fully resurrected, he thought he was living again. Resurrection was a dangerous magic, but it wasn't impossible. Sun Wukong himself wasn't able to do it, he wasn't built for such delicate operations, his own magic too strong and burning to deal with souls, but he knew it wasn't a fable.

He thought Macaque had been resurrected, brought back to the mortal planes by some soul master. But his theory was becoming more and more uncertain the more he thought of his moon's weak states. It was highly probable that the Lady Bone Demon was the one behind his warrior's resurrection. And the sage didn't want to believe it, because he knew that, even if she was a master of mind, she wasn't a master of soul, she wasn't powerful enough to bring back the dead among the living.

If he was correct, it meant the Bone Demon did something unspeakable, something forbidden by those who dwelled in soulcraft. Resurrection was the art of bringing back the souls, for it to be working, the soul had to be full. It was the highest form of healing magic. But for those that weren't powerful enough to dwell with souls and they fickle nature, you could bring back only fragments of it, it was called necromancy.

Necromancy was the art to break the soul, the foulest of sin for souls dweller. Necromancers broke the soul of those they wanted to bring back, and stole fragments of it, stuffing it in corpses, creating the paradoxical living-dead, creatures that lost part of themselves, rejected by nature, but cherished by life.

Sun Wukong didn't want to believe Macaque was a living-dead, but he knew it was the only reasonable explanation for the other odd state. It was heart-breaking to think that, because it meant Macaque lost parts of himself, parts of who he was, parts of his soul. And the other seemed so full of life each time Sun Wukong saw him, he never struck the sage as incomplete, as broken.

But Sun Wukong wasn't an expert on souls, mayhaps there could be another explanation, or something that he overlooked. He promised himself to look into it at a later date, for now, he had to chase away his somber musing, tonight was the new year, and he promised MK to celebrate it with his little group.

The sage spent the rest of his day with Sock, he groomed her, petted her and took her on a walk. Well, it was more of him following Sock around as she explored the outside of the cave. Sun Wukong wasn't very keen on letting her roam around the mountain unsupervised, there were dangerous places here for a defenseless cat. And, yes, even if his little lady managed to scare away every wild animal that dared to cross her (be it foxes or snakes), Sun Wukong still thought her pretty defenseless. She was tiny and fluffy and adorable, she could be stolen, or even eaten by some evil beasts.

"Are you alright? I bet it scared you! Aww, don't worry lil bud, I'm here now." Cooed the sage as he nuzzled his cat, reassuring her after her encounter with a wild boar. Sock seemed quite unbothered, licking her bloody paws (she did scratch the boar when it jumped her) as if nothing happened. "You're a therapy cat after all, the wild life is too dangerous." Mumbled the sage, Sock looked at him for a second, tilting her head a little and meowing curiously, playing with his snout. "Aww, yeaa, you're just a lil lady, no roaming the mountain for you. I'll create a safe place for you later my lil sage."

He went back with Sock preciously cradled in his arms. Sun Wukong spent quite a lot of time trying to choose the perfect outfit for his little outing, he settled for a brand new hanfu, a striking yellow one, and carefully groomed himself. Once ready, he joined his cat on the couch and set numerous accessories he bought a few days prior in front of her.

"Alright my lil floof triangle, we're going out tonight, so you have to be dressed too. What do you want to wear ?" Sock looked at him a hot minute, before playing with the yellow necktie next to her. "Necktie it is then, aww we're matching." The sage dressed his lil lady, carefully tying the necktie, and cooed shamelessly at her when she looked down with a frown. Sock played with the necktie a little, caressing it softly with her front paws, before looking up at the sage." Yeah, I know, you're very pretty like that." Sock meowed, as if satisfied, and stopped fiddling with her necktie. Sun Wukong took hundreds of pictures of her, squealing each time she blinked at the camera, or when she rolled on herself and showed her belly.

The King stopped his onslaught of pictures after a while, he packed his phone and took his lil bud in his arms.

"Now, I know you rode the cloud once to come here, but don't freak out, I'm here." Softly said the sage, Sock looked quite unbothered when Sun Wukong summoned his cloud, and sat on it. They soared through the sky, both lightened up by the day fading light. Sock hid in his chest to evade the chilling winds, but other than that she looked quite peaceful. "I never met a cat so calm, you know I think other animals would freak out." Laughed the sage, Sock looked up and played with the trims of his hanfu. "Yeah, you're right, you're not like the others. You know Heaven recognized your titles yesterday, I received their letter. So now you have a standing lil sage." Sun Wukong hung his tail above his cat, she pawed at it curiously, playing with the fluffy end." Lil sage of floof~ the floofiest sage on earth."

They arrived at the docks after a few seconds. MK and the others wanted to roam around the festival a bit before heading towards Sandy's to celebrate the new year. And even if Sun Wukong liked the new year, he wasn't fond of crowds. Sandy already gave him the green light to wait for them at his house, he knew the place quite well after his sessions. They did a few sessions after his embarrassing breakdown, Sandy proposed to stop the heavy talks for a bit, and focus on rebuilding their trust. The sage was quite grateful for that, he didn't know if he could handle it if each session ended in tears and bleeding hearts.

The few exercises they did were fun in itself. They would talk about their days, usually Macaque would talk about the troop, or about his roaming on the mountain, and Sun Wukong would talk about MK and Sock, even showing pictures he took from time to time. Macaque laughed at his first attempts at taking pictures, mocking the blurry and unrecognizable form of his lil lady. Sun Wukong trained in the art of photography just to spite him, and now he could capture Sock's best angles easily.

They also drew a little, both admitting that they missed it, and never took the time to do it after their breakup. Those sessions were spent in silence, they would each bring their own sketchbook and share the crayons, sometimes showing their art at the end of it if they felt like it. Sun Wukong even got to keep some of Macaque's drawings after asking, he put them on his bedroom wall, proudly showing them to anyone who walked in. He missed the other style, the sharp angles and the comically large eyes never failed to cheer him up on any rough days. Macaque even drew Sock, one time, after the sage kept pestering him with photos of her. He put this drawing in a beautiful framework, one he bought specially for that, and put it on his nightstand.

They spent the last session, the one from a few days ago, telling compliments about one another at Sandy's demand. It didn't last long, both too embarrassed to keep it going. Nonetheless the few words they said was enough to cheer the sage up, he felt like he walked on cloud nine for the last few days. Macaque had said four things to him, he said he was “good with the kid even if he could learn a thing or two about mentoring”, that he was “strong even for an old man”, that he was “caring and good” and that he could be “handsome in specific lights”.

And even if three of those were probably backhanded compliments, Macaque uttered them with such sincerity, it touched his heart. In response, Sun Wukong said that Macaque was “kind even if he liked to pretend otherwise”, that he was “a warrior”, that he was “good company when he wasn't a brat”, and that he was “pretty in the moonlight”. The last one fell out of his mouth without his consent, and he has to admit he was quite nervous to see the other after this particular slip of tongue. They talked a bit by messages (they tended to do that a lot after his outing with his clones in the city) but never about this.

The sage sat on Sandy's couch, and looked at his lil lady to clear his mind. Sock walked towards the other cats and proudly showed her necktie, softly caressing it from times to times with her front paws, and hissing at any that dared touch it. Sun Wukong thought it was adorable and filmed the whole process.

"I have to send it to Macaque." Giggled the King as he ended the video.

"Send me what?" Sun Wukong jumped and turned towards the kitchen entrance, Macaque was there, hands on his hips, obviously proud of himself for startling the sage, the little rascal.

"Holy–why are you here??"

"I was here before you. I was making tea in the kitchen." Snorted the warrior. "So, send me what?"

"Just another video of Sock."

"Again? By now I feel like I know her, even if I never interacted with her properly." Sighed the macaque, he looked around and spotted her easily. He walked toward her and crouched down. She meowed happily, seemingly loving his pets, and even showed her belly, when Macaque went for the floof, she didn't bite him, the traitor." The necktie looks cute."

"Yeah, we're even matching." Laughed the sage. "Oh, you know Heaven recognized her titles!"

"Really? When?"

"I received the letter last night."

"Well then." Macaque took one of her front paws and softly kissed it, as if she was a noble lady from another time. "Pleasure to meet you, Lady Above Else, Little Sage Of Floof."Sock blinked a moment, before using the fact he was quite close to her to boop his snout with the tip of her paws. Macaque laughed at that, he rose and turned toward the sage, who was obviously recording the whole thing. "You want some tea? And stop recording."

"Hm, nah, I'll keep recording. And yeah, purple!"

Macaque rolled his eyes and disappeared in the kitchen while grumbling “of course purple, why did I even ask”. Sun Wukong followed him with his eyes, letting his tail thump on the couch like crazy the second the other disappeared, and stopping when he came back. They sip on their cups, one on the couch and the other on the floor, surrounded by cats.

"How's your cave project doing?" Asked the sage after a while.

"It's coming along. I moved some things from my old dojo, and the bedding you bought is quite comfy." Sun Wukong smothered the happy trills wanting to pass his throat with a gulp of tea.

"That's cool. Need help with anything?"

"No, that's alright. I got it."The cave project was quite simple in itself, Macaque was only creating his own space on the mountain, in a shaded cave, with the sage's permission of course. The King didn't know where the said cave was exactly, but he didn't try to pry, he didn't want to anger the other. He only knew it was a shaded cave near one of the shores.

"Okay. Don't hesitate to ask though."

"Yeah, I will."

The conversation died down naturally as they both enjoyed their teas. In the past, those sort of moments would have been unthinkable for the both of them. In his youth, Wukong had hated silence more than anything, always wanting to do something, or talk until his voice was bruised. Macaque hadn't been the type to enjoy quiet moments either, with him at least. And the sage had the inkling suspicion it was because he was insecure about himself, and thought the King would be annoyed if they didn't fill the silence. Nowadays though, Sun Wukong found himself fond of those quiet moments, he liked the peacefulness of existing with the other without the need to fill any void. It was in the serenity of those silences that he could truly appreciate each second, and let himself muse over wandering thoughts.

"Do you still have trouble teaching MK how to summon his cloud ?" The King let the question echo a second, simply enjoying the way Macaque's voice sounded, before answering.

"Yeah, the kid has trouble keeping the form, his cloud disperse each time he tries."

"Hm, you know thus far I only did light footwork with MK, but if you allow me I can help with that. I'm quite good with wind related magic."

"Oh yeah." The sage looked at the macaque and met his gaze with fondness. "That would help me, and the kid, thanks."

"You're welcome. Just call me for the next training session." Mumbled Macaque, perhaps embarrassed by his thankfulness.

"I'll do that."

They let the silence embrace them once more, enjoying themself quietly as they petted all the cats that wandered near them. The group arrived after a bit, they greeted them joyously, some more than others, and sat around the living room.

"Hey Monkey King!!" Greeted the kid as he sat besides his mentor.

"Hey there, bud. You had fun?"

"Yeah! Mei and I got scammed!" Sun Wukong raised an eyebrow at that, he looked at the pig, the only responsible adult in the lot, and the chef sighed, but he didn't seem to be seething. And if the pig wasn't seething, then it was probably already dealt with.

"You mean, you got scammed, I was just playing along."Chuckled the dragon girl as she sat beside his mentee.

" No fair ! You were scammed too."

" I'm too awesome for that." They bickered a little after that.

The evening was quite nice in itself, they talked about anything and everything, Sun Wukong showed his cat pictures and ranted about how Sock was the cutest cat in the world, Sandy readily agreed that the necktie was cute, to his utter delight. As the evening passed by, the energy died down a little. The kids were gushing about a new video game, Sandy and the pig were talking about tonight's menu, and, surprisingly enough, Macaque was socializing with Tang, at least he believed the other name was Tang.

The ebony monkey wasn't overly comfortable, the sage could see how his muscles tensed ever so slightly, how his voice wavered, perhaps doubting himself on his own words. But he was making an effort, listening to the scholar's excited rants quite attentively, and answering some of his questions, even sharing one or two laughs. It was lovely, to see the other trying to come out of his shell, to see him make an effort. But it was at the same time very bittersweet, because Macaque didn't even try with his past companions, with the monk's past life. There was a part of him, some deep secretive part he buried, that was upset at the fact that Macaque wasn't looking at him.

The warrior caught his eyes, one mesle second, when the scholar was busy looking through his notes to ask more precise questions. The sage gulped, feeling as if he was struck in place by those twilight eyes. Macaque looked away, and gently flickered his tail, a tentative invitation. The King, despite feeling nervous, left the couch and sat beside the warrior.

"So anything interesting going on?" Awkwardly asked the sage. The scholar immediately looked up, and beamed the second his eyes caught him.

"Monkey King! Perfect, you can also answer some questions for me! Is it true that phoenixes were born because merchants didn't recognize the Egyptian sphinx?" Sun Wukong fidgeted with his hanfu trims, he replied to the best of his ability, and Tang beamed even more. Macaque snickered beside him, and leaned over him, softly bumping his shoulder.

" Now I'm not the only one suffering through this."

"How dare you lead me into this trap." Snorted the King.

"I'm just evil like that." Replied the other with a teasing glance, Wukong would forever deny blushing.

"You rascal."

They spent the rest of the evening answering the scholar's questions, sometimes whispering among themselves, bickering about the silliest of things. Once the night fell, they all got out of the house, preparing seats on the docks to admire the fireworks. As the others settled their chairs and food, the sage noticed Macaque slipping away with his mentee, going to a more shaded place. Curiosity nipped at the King, he quietly followed them, Sock hot on his steps, playing with his tail at each of his steps.

Macaque and MK were at the corner of the house, in a silent place. Sun Wukong crouched down, peeking from his hiding place, Sock locked in his arms to shush her demanding meows. Perhaps, he shouldn't breach their privacy like this, but monkeys were curious by nature, sue him.

"What do you wanted to talk about?" Curiously asked his mentee.

"Hm… I mean…" Macaque took a deep breath, and dived in his mentee gaze. "I just… I wanted to say sorry, you know, for the whole manipulating you, stealing your powers and chasing you thing. Just, sorry. I never told you that, and…well, sorry. You didn't deserve any of that."

"Oh… I wasn't expecting that." Awkwardly chuckled the boy. "It's alright, I guess. I'm… glad you're telling me this. We can, if you want, maybe work on forgiving and all?"

"Oh, yeah, totally, that would be swell."

"Swell?"

"Shut it, old habits." Huffed the warrior

"You're an old man." Chuckled his mentee.

"And you're a brat. Now come on, the fireworks are starting soon."

Sun Wukong scrambled on his feet to get out of the way before they could spot them. His chest was filled with a warm feeling, something fluttering that made him smile foolishly. He put dampening spells on his cat ears before putting her to the ground, not wanting her to be startled by the fireworks. He approached the warrior once he let Sock run wild, innocently taking the place next to him.

"Hey, hm, did you put spells on your ears and all?"

"Yeah, I'm not an idiot." Snorted the other.

"No, of course not. Just, you know, just checking." Macaque turned towards him with a raised eyebrow, he seemed to think for a second, before pinching the King's side quite hard. Sun Wukong yelped, and glared at the ebony monkey. "What was that for!?,

"It's for eavesdropping, you're not discreet, Wukong." Huffed the warrior with an amused glint in his eyes. Sun Wukong wanted to reply, say something to defend his honor, but the fireworks flew, and the night exploded in colors. The colorful lights fell upon the warrior's midnight fur, highlighting him in the loveliest way possible. The sage turned away, heart hammering inside of his chest.

As always, the fireworks were the best thing invented by humankind. They illuminated the sky as everyone wished for a joyous year, flowers of fire erupting in the dark, turning the night into the day. Sun Wukong gazed at them with wonder, tail wagging widely each time colors bloomed in the sky. Even after they faded away, he could still feel his excitement buzzing in his veins, making his skin tingle with pleasant sparks. He had always loved fireworks, loved the way they made him feel.

Fireworks had always been the one thing able to clear his mind even on the darkest of days.

After the show, the group gathered to talk a bit, letting their excitement be known. MK had to leave after checking his phone, he muttered something about “Red Son needing him”, and while that wasn't uncommon (the two of them seemingly closer than before) the look he threw at the dragon girl before leaving, and said girl sharp nods were worrying. Sun Wukong narrowed his eyes, he wanted to follow after his mentee and finally discover what he has been doing for the past few months. But at the same time, he didn't want to leave the warrior's side. This was one in a kind night, and Macaque rarely got out of the mountain, he rarely dressed so nicely.

The sage turned towards his moon and gulped, eyeing the way his brand new hanfu (courtesy of the dragon girl) was hugging his curves and highlighting his fur, silver definitely looked good on him.

"Hey, hm, Macaque… you wanna head out?" Tentatively asked the sage, trying to coax him in his shenanigans.

"Where ?"

"Oh, just, you know, take a walk, there…" He pointed at the direction MK took, while averting his eyes.

"You mean the place MK ran to? You want to spy on him?"

"N-no, I mean, maybe? Don't look at me like that, I know you're wondering what he's doing too…"

"And so your only solution is to follow after him?" Sighed the warrior.

"Yes?"

Macaque rolled his eyes and walked away, the sage wondered if he made a mistake, but his musing was cut off by his moon's voice.

"You're coming or what?" Inquired the warrior, he respectfully said goodbye to everyone and turned towards him, gaze diving in him. The King gulped, feeling himself being frozen, stilling in his place. He was brought back from his frozen state by his lil lady, Sock pawed at his pants, looking up at him with worry. The sage cooed and took her in his arms. He hurried towards the warrior with a skip in his steps.

"W-wait for me."

Macaque petted Sock the second the sage caught up with him, his lil sage leaned in the touch greedily, the lucky lady.

"Alright, let's go, I've been curious about what this kid is scheming for months now." Chuckled the macaque, Sun Wukong admired him for a bit before answering.

"Yeah, leggo !"

+ Mac drawing Sock be like this :