#and Wukong being miserable and not trying to get better

[lululocomo]

So huh- I may have created a spinoff of my au "The new past" and it's just pain and suffering. The angst level is insane.

Cw: mention of death to put it simply: Everyone dies except Wukong. Macaque die in front of MK who's magic goes so bersek his body shattered completly. Wukong lost his mate and kid in the same hour. Not knowing how to cope (and doesn't want to), he became cold and distance himself from everyone. He's just empty emotionally, he barely talk and interact with people.

This idea of this AU got created in a discussion on the discord server a few days ago and it has invade my brain.

(link to the discord server if you want to join btw!)

So have the few art I made for now of this AU :

Wukong holding MK clothes, he just miss his Kid so much

Getting ready is hard for him, but he still want to wear things to remember his family

This is NOT an happy AU, I just really wanted to created even more angst- sorry not sorry/silly

NEXT

[lucagray813]

Co-Exist AU

I am sick with a cold at the moment so here's a little idea that came to me while I was lying miserable unable to do much but maladaptive daydream.

The core premise of this AU is that Macaque wasn't killed and that after his fight with Wukong during the journey he retreated back to the island. Badly hurt and very traumatised, he hides away in a remote part of the island afraid of what the Monkey King will do to him if he comes back and finds him in his palace.

Once Wukong comes back after finishing the Journey, he tries more than once to reconcile with Mac but Mac always runs away before he can even get close and the one time he does manage to corner him the sheer terror Mac looks at him with is enough to have him backing off.

Eventually Wukong stops trying and the two coexist on the island - avoiding and ignoring each other. Made easier by the fact that Mac more or less becomes nocturnal.

Hundreds of years pass, and finally MK enters the picture and his introduction to Mac happens similarly to how it does in canon.

After a frustrating day destroying murals, he's trudging away from the mountain and towards the beach so he can go home when a handful of monkeys intercept him and seem to insist he follow them, and despite complaining this better not be another giant termite nest or some other fine dining opportunity, he begrudgingly follows them.

Heading towards a part of the island Wukong told him to stay clear of due to feral monkeys he starts to feel increasingly unsettled as if someone's watching him, and he thinks he glances a figure in the branches more than once but there's nothing there when he looks again.

He let's out a scream and instinctively pulls out his staff when someone suddenly appears in front of him but they're gone again by the time he gets his bearings. The monkeys that have been leading him screech at him and eventually he gets the hint that they want him to put his staff away - which he does very reluctantly.

Almost immediately Mac reappears and this time MK manages to resist pulling out the staff and instead starts to question who he is and why the heck is he naked? Mac obligingly uses the shadows to summon some plain black clothes to cover himself, watching curiously as MK gets a little hysterical in his bewilderment.

Eventually, MK stops to breathe and is somewhat convinced this isn't some evil clone of Monkey King when he sees how calm the monkeys are, some of them even sitting at Mac's feet or on his shoulder.

Whether through physical or emotional trauma, or both, Mac can't speak and he communicates purely with shadows. Ignoring MK's questions about who he is, he manipulates the shadows on the ground in front of MK's feet to show him his "training" session with Wukong and then several monkeys playing telephone to eventually whisper in Mac's ear, telling him about it.

Through some unflattering imagery, MK gets the idea that this stranger thinks Wukong is a bad teacher and is offering to teach him instead - and that if he's interested he should meet him in the "haunted" forest that he's been told to stay clear of.

Mac disappears and MK hesitates, asking the monkeys what they think, even if he can't actually understand their chirping he gets the vibe they're telling him to go for it and inevitably he decides it's at least worth checking out. If only so he can report back to Wukong about this stranger on his island.

What follows is a very boring and practical lesson on proper form.

(Mac being very out of practice with the concept of personal space is a bit handsy in how he corrects MK.)

MK complains about how underwhelming the lesson is before Mac invites him to try and fight him and easily trounces him and gives him a shadow play lecture about foundations and building blocks and sends him on his way and "telling" him he can come back next time if he wants to keep training.

This goes on for a while, and while MK struggles with the slower pace - at least he's actually learning something, even if it's not the hero stuff he really wants. Mac does eventually help him with his powers to a certain degree after a small mishap, but it is more or less limited to learning how to control his physical strength.

He also teaches MK to fight using a staff - not the staff because Mac immediately flees if MK even looks like he's about to pull it out but with a normal wooden staff.

One day MK is complaining about Wukong's training and questioning what he's done wrong that he's been relegated to clean up duty and, to MK's disbelief, Mac explains that it's because Wukong doesn't know how to teach. Although upon reflection MK wonders if Mac might be onto something, especially when Mac adds that Wukong never really been a student himself - learning almost everything easily and with little guidance needed.

Out loud, he wonders if he should talk to Wukong about all of this and is taken aback when Mac looks so panicked by the idea - shadows showing Wukong flying into a terrible rage at MK questioning him. He does his best to reassure Mac, and himself, that wouldn't happen but nothing seems to ease Mac's distress.

Despite this, MK talks to Wukong but decides not to mention Mac. The next time Wukong tries to get him to do some busy work he puts his foot down and asks for Wukong to train him properly. Dismissive and a little offended, Wukong tells him that he is training him "properly" - there are important lessons tucked away in these seemingly pointless tasks.

Annoyed MK asks him what the important lessons are because he's taken up some martial arts lessons on the side and- Immensely offended, Wukong starts questioning him about who's teaching him and what sort of credentials they have that they think they could possibly be a match for the Monkey King!

MK reveals that well, he doesn't actually know his other mentor's name and from there is more or less forced to confess with a "OK, don't be mad but I've sort of been training with that other monkey that lives on the island? You know the one that looks like you?"

Stunned, "You've been training with Macaque…?"

He listens as MK explains everything and when questioned if he's angry or not, he replies he's not, just… confused. MK is equally confused when Wukong starts asking after Mac's welfare - genuinely wanting to know how the other is doing.

Wukong starts to wonder out loud if he should pay him a visit and MK quickly tells him that's not a good idea - reluctantly explaining that Mac seemed sort of… afraid of him?

Wukong is very put out by this but ultimately reassures MK that he won't approach Mac and that MK is free to keep learning from him as long as he keeps him in the loop. The rest of the training session is spent with MK showing him what Mac has taught him.

(MK at some point does ask who Macaque is and he gets a sort of "He's my… He was my… It's complicated, bud. But this is as much his home as it is mine.")

Once MK leaves for the day, Wukong summons some monkeys he knows spend a lot of time with Mac and gets them to tell him what's going on, after complaining at them for not telling him this was going on in the first place.

(Most of the monkeys are friendly with both Mac and Wukong but there are some that are very loyal to one over the other, with some of Mac's loyal followers being outright hostile towards Wukong and generally staying far away from him. The group Wukong talks to are not the hostile kind.)

They explain that when news reached Mac that Wukong was being a bad teacher, he decided he needed to step in. But while he is very offended that the monkeys thought he was doing a bad job AND were talking shit about him to Mac, he does do some serious reflecting and decides he needs to get his act together and be a better mentor.

He's tempted to seek out Mac but some very insistent monkeys make him think better of it.

MK for his part leaves to find Mac and tell him the talk went well but he can't find him. After several failed attempts, he asks Wukong, who asks the monkeys, who tell them that he doesn't need to train MK anymore now that Wukong has got his act together.

Disappointing both MK and Wukong.

That's all I've got so far but Mac definitely appears again during the events of Season 2 when Wukong leaves for "vacation".

I might come back and add more to this later once I've thought about it. But in the meantime if anything here piques your interest then feel free to use it!

Part 2

[acoraxia]

What are your thoughts on shadowpeach?

Fandom wise? I do not care for it.

Canon wise? I believe in men committing crimes while forming the most toxic, unhealthy attachments to one person could lead to such a dysfunctional relationship that it, eventually, turns into a functional one. And also they’re trans and aspec.

Disclaimer: this is all my opinion and people can do whatever they want, i simply have my gripes with some of the fandom stuff. this is just me explaining what i like and dislike about shadowpeach.

I think the most common thing people fall into when it comes to ships—or shipping in general—is how to domesticate these two characters without fully addressing their flaws, personalities, behavior, and their overall choices throughout the original media/show they come from. 

Macaque and SWK both suffer equally through this mischaracterization: Macaque is often painted as this shy or “edgy” character with little to no ties to his actual character in canon and, more often than not, he is perceived as this “dad” type of character when, in fact, he should not be allowed near children for I fear he will bully them nonstop until they sit there in the corner feeling disheartened and miserable about themselves; Sun Wukong is often portrayed as this dumb himbo with little-to-no means of understanding social cues, not understanding emotions in a way that’s very frustrating, and be this yearning, pining idiot who’s still longing for his childhood crush when he did not hesitate to punch this guy in the face multiple times throughout the show. So when they are paired up together it’s this weird mash of people believing Macaque is the better dad with more understanding of human behavior and Wukong is his dumb, doting husband who’s doing his best and cannot stand up for himself when confronted about things.

The amount of times people choose to make Macaque sympathetic by having Sun Wukong’s family side with Macaque when it comes to Wukong’s actions/choices is so vast I could not count them all on one hand. The common trope of having Princess Iron Fan (Sun Wukong’s sister-in-law) become Macaque’s sworn sister is so disheartening to see for someone who read through Journey To The West and thought of how silly the overall family dynamic of the Demon Bull Family and Sun Wukong’s troops was. Removing Iron Fan as Sun Wukong’s literal sister just to have someone backup Macaque and sympathize with him is funny and a bit silly. 

That being said… the canon version of Shadowpeach and its possibilities are, in fact, very delicious.

Canon wise this is what we know about Sun Wukong and Macaque’s history together: 

Sun Wukong and Macaque meet

The brotherhood is formed after Azure meets Sun Wukong, Macaque tags along with Wukong (note: Macaque is not addressed as “brother” by the characters, only Wukong is)

Macaque tries to warn Wukong about how dealing with Heaven might be a bad idea

They share a peach under a tree; Wukong reassures Macaque this plan will work

Wukong carries on with Azure’s plan anyway (yes, azure lion’s plan, not wukong’s)

The brotherhood is defeated and Wukong gets trapped under a mountain

Presumably no one comes to visit Wukong, only Macaque

During his final visit, Wukong is angry that Macaque is free and can’t see the fact that Wukong was trying to do everything for them and his kingdom

Macaque snaps back at Wukong and calls him an obsessive demon before leaving

They have another fallout and fight

Wukong ends up killing Macaque in the aftermath

500~ years later, Macaque and Wukong fight again with Wukong being more apathetic towards their reunion than Macaque is

Macaque obsesses over Wukong continuously (coughs)

Macaque is biased in his retellings of his and Wukong’s relationship (see: all of shadowplay and the scrolls memories)

They fight (again) throughout S3

They somewhat reconcile by the end of S4

We will address the fact Sun Wukong was groomed into going to war by this former celestial warrior instead of having it be because of his own want to protect his family and friends after Heaven refused to pay him the respect he wanted when he first joined their ranks later. Right now we focus on the fact that Sun Wukong is canonically a person people easily fall in love with (platonically) and have a tendency to want to stay close to regardless of what his future actions will be like and Macaque is sequentially obsessed with him throughout the show.

“The hero and the warrior were like the Sun and the Moon. Their light, a protective glow, shining upon the world. Together, there was nothing that could stop the two of them. Either in the Celestial Realms or on Earth. As time went on, the hero attained power beyond comprehension. As the hero's light grew, so too did his shadow. And soon, the warrior was cast in that shadow. In the darkness, the warrior was forgotten by the hero.”

Fun fact: Macaque is never going to be on par with Sun Wukong’s power and he works best as support than he does a duo-attacker along side Wukong. Wukong is on his own power level and Macaque, while being able of holding his own against enemies, could be stomped to death by Xiaoijiao is he crossed the line.

Macaque’s obsession with Sun Wukong comes from the inability to move on from the past; Macaque wanting things to go back as they were is a subtle theme going through the show — he keeps latching on to biased memories and avoiding the actual problems that caused their relationship to fall apart and it isn’t until Season 3’s big confrontation with Long Xiaojiao’s Samadhi Fire ritual. He realizes he abandoned Wukong during a time of need and proceeds to flee, abandoning him again. 

Macaque has issues. More often than not people call out on Sun Wukong for abandoning Xiaotian or the Monkie Kid Crew all while ignoring the fact Sun Wukong does not purposefully leave Qi Xiaotian, he tries his hardest to make it back in time and is visibly scared/horrified when LBD attacks in his absence. Sun Wukong tries his hardest to comfort Xiaotian while Macaque tries to torment him. 

Regardless, Sun Wukong and Macaque’s relationship is unique to most media’s portrayal of friends turned enemies. Because Wukong does not see Macaque as a threat up until he teams up with Lady Bone Demon — he is only scary by association, not by anything he has done up until that point. You can tell with the way Wukong mocks him and calls him something akin to a puppet during their interaction in Season 3 when Macaque trapped him and Nezha in the ice. 

And even then Macaque doesn’t even bother trying to engage with Wukong in a friendly manner because kindness is for losers HA i’m not apologizing for anything, bye Sun Wukong, you big old LOSER [proceeds to possibly live on the streets and stay homeless until wukong allows him to return to ffm under certain house rules]

You’ll notice that Sun Wukong barely has any opinions on Macaque.

This is because Macaque is favored by the narrative more than Sun Wukong is so we have very little context as to how Sun Wukong genuinely feels towards Macaque. 

Sun Wukong sees Macaque as an annoyance, a bother, a threat, a coward, an imposter and then, finally, an ally. 

But all we get from that is Wukong handing Macaque a peach-flavored ice cream pop as a parallel to him sharing a peach with his old friend back when they were young monkeys before he was trapped under a mountain for 500 years as a result of his abuser’s power hold on him that forced him to fight heaven as a way to “make the world a better place”. 

We love to see it.

Macaque and Wukong’s relationship goes from mutual interest and a supportive friendship established years prior to the original building of the brotherhood to a very weird, uncategorized type of dynamic. The only way to characterize Sun Wukong’s “affection” towards Macaque is, possibly, the same way most people would characterize Macaque to be towards Wukong. Y’know the slightly judgmental actions and eye rolls and scoffs of affection most people write about Macaque when Wukong does something stupid? Yeah.

“But Macaque said “this guy” when Wukong was presenting his plan to defeat Azure—“ yeah have you considered Wukong does a lot of masking in the presence of the entire Monkie Kid Crew and Macaque has a tendency to present himself as this cool persona when in fact he’s just a homeless monkey who’s been crashing on his ex’s couch for the past weeks since the ending of Season 3? 

“OK…. but why QPR Shadowpeach?”

Sun Wukong throughout the course of Journey to the West and all its past and future iterations have always had him be uninterested in both men and women. There are multiple instances where he’s capable of courting women and he instead backs away or does not pay it any mind; aside from this he’s heavily implied to only care about familial love and friendships. He does not see his pilgrim brothers as anything more than family and he views Tripitaka as a mentor rather than someone whom he was chained to. And Azure was his idol and he was groomed by him, and everyone else was viewed to him as a troop — or, y’know, a family.

This and the fact that— both Sun Wukong and Macaque are over a thousand years old. Why on earth would they have a normal type of relationship? Giving them a checklist of what passes on as romantic and platonic when to them the line is so blurred it’s barely existent to them is amusing. 

Sun Wukong and Macaque having their own weird relationship where it changes from frustrated best friends to partners to angry middle aged demons to the tired traumatized immortals who sometimes cuddle while still beating each other up is so deliciously interesting and unhealthy to the point where it is healthy. 

Also Celestial bodies are not the same as mortal bodies; canonically Sun Wukong has transformed into women before and people have addressed him with female-leaning pronouns before. my personal headcanon of sun wukong being genderfluid lves on and now we can have sapphic shadowpeach with transfem macaque.

also im still feverish so if this doesnt make sense then too bad damn im sorry

[space-akari-darling]

@sakurablossoms-world

I’m doing them all in once hope you don’t mind!

warnings: Period pains, pregnancy, misunderstandings, body image issues

1 Trans Macaque period

-Macaque hadn’t been seen in a long while and Nuwa and Wukong were worried

-They went looking for him and found him having a particularly rough time in a cave clutching himself and curled up in a ball

-Worried sick Wukong brought him leaves and grass to make him more comfortable and Nuwa ran off to find food and water for him

-Macaque was trying not to cry but it was super hard not to because of the pain. Trying so hard to be tough fails miserably for him because Nuwa and Wukong think it’s adorable

-Nuwa and Wukong snuggled up to him when they’d done everything they could and told him how brave and strong he was

-When Macaque was feeling better Wukong and Nuwa still couldn’t help but take care of him extra

2 Pregnant Nuwa and Macaque

-Nuwa and Macaque got pregnant and Wukong is so happy but nervous because he’s never experienced being a father before

-When Nuwa or Macaque, sometimes both, are having a rough day, Wukong will say with them the whole day and do whatever they ask him to

-He can’t sleep sometimes because he’s watching them making sure they’re ok

-Nuwa think this is so sweet but Macaque is so embarrassed

3 Misunderstanding

-Macaque can’t help but still be in love with Wukong even though he betrayed him

-He usually goes out to clear his head and usually he’s alone but not today

-He spots someone familiar. At first he brushes it off but I’m curiosity looks closer and sees in despair Wukong with Nuwa and they seem very close, holding hands, being super close, and even sharing small kisses

-He tries to go confront them but when he gets to them he can hardly even say a word and runs off

-Wukong is shocked but insists he has to go after Macaque. Nuwa doesn’t stop him and follows him after Macaque

-When Wukong goes to confront him he finds Macaque hiding behind a rock and refuses to face Wukong

-Wukong sheepishly explains the situation. He thought Macaque didn’t love him anymore after how he acted and treated him. He found Nuwa and wanted to try starting anew and be a better partner

-Wukong admits he still loves Macaque and doesn’t want to let him go yet -Macaque finally leaves his hiding spot and can’t help but smile and Wukong

-Nuwa is there too and Macaque is a little awkward but Nuwa says she’s fine with sharing Wukong and is willing to learn to love Macaque

4 Body Issues

-When Wukong is alone he stares at his reflection and feels his stomach and arms feeling bad

-he often performs glamouring on his body till it’s unrecognizable and Nuwa and Macaque are not having it

-they tell him they love his body no matter what but Wukong is still feeling bad

-They decide to show him their love my snuggling him and laying on his soft body and fall asleep on him

-Wukong finally feels better

5 Fight

-Wukong and Macaque get into an argument that becomes incredibly heated and the two monkeys start to fight

-Nuwa runs in between the two of them to try and stop them and Wukong accidentally hits her across the face. He immediately shrinks back and runs away

-He’s terrified that he pulled the final straw and now Nuwa and Macaque don’t love him

-Nuwa and Macaque quickly find him and quickly hug him

-Macaque apologizes for fighting and that their argument shouldn’t of gone so far

-Nuwa forgives Wukong for hitting him because it was a mistake

-Wukong tears up and apologizes to his mates

6 Family Dinner

-Wukong Nuwa Macaque and Bai He meet MK at Pigsy’s noodles for dinner

-MK tried to make noodles for his family and although they were nothing compared to Pigsy’s his family still loved them

-After eating Nuwa really wanted to learn how to make noodles so Pigsy and MK taught her

sorry this took so long to get out! I hope you enjoyed

[cosmicxblossoms]

👀 + Wukong why are you being nice to macaque when he's been trying to make you miserable?

mention: @6em4k They weren't pulling any punches here on the question it seems, went right for it when asking him this.

"Isn't it obvious? He wants to be in my life and know he's worth my attention so I'm letting him know that it's fine if he wants to, I just am not doing it in the way he's doing it. Him trying to make me miserable is his way of getting a rise out of me for said attention and I'm just not playing the game. He wants to raid my pantry fine but everything's labeled so he doesn't make himself sick. Breaking into my house and taking things is fine too, I got so much stuff anyways that I probably forgot about having a lot of it. He gets hurt from taking something or needs help I'll give it to him."

"I won't deny the things I did to him, I tossed him aside and made him feel betrayed. I didn't listen to him when he tried to warn me about things in the past and ended up dragging everyone into my messes. Told him I didn't want to see him anymore and then I killed him when we fought which I still have nightmares about to this day. Even now after all this time things aren't very good between us, there's a lot of things that we need to work through together but I'm not going to push him into anything. I can't make that choice for him, him wanting to do better is something he has to want for himself. There's that part of me that misses what we used to be but I know that it can never happen again, we've both done too much and changed too much for that to be reality. That doesn't mean that we can't try to make something new together if he is willing, I am willing to try but again that's not my choice to make. I just want to be sure that he will be ok, that's why I look out for him in more passive ways. If Macaque ever feels ready to talk and try to form something new between us then I'll be right here waiting but if not then that's his decision. Doesn't mean I won't stop looking out for him though."

[krizaland]

A New Oath part 2

Lmk Macaque x Ming

So I got inspired and write a part 2 to A New Oath.

Summary: After being captured by Lady Bone Demon, Ming awaits her horrid destiny.

Be warned: there is possession and angst ahead.

Ming thrashed against the chains, frantically trying to escape but to no avail.

“LET ME GO- ACK!”

Ming was cut off by Not-mayor tugging harder on her chains.

“Cease your struggling. Your chains will only grow tighter.” Lady Bone Demon said calmly as she folded her arms behind her back.

“What shall we do with this little distraction, my lady-” -Not-mayor tugged on Ming’s wings- “-Shall we clip her wings? Or maybe cut her pretty little head off?”

“No. I need her alive. My current vessel is growing weak. To regain my full power, I will need to relocate. And what better vessel than a descendant of The Lotus Maiden?” Lady Bone Demon’s voice echoed with whispers as she spoke.

“What?! I’m not gonna give you my body you creep!” Ming snarled as she continued to struggle.

“It seems you don’t have a choice.”

With a wicked giggle, Lady Bone Demon leapt out from the little girl she was possessing.

The poor little girl fell to the ground as Lady Bone Demon eagerly leapt towards her new host.

“NO! GET AWAY FROM-AAH!!”

Ming let out a blood curdling shriek as Lady Bone Demon slithered into her body.

A blue glow engulfed the room as an icy chill filled the air.

Ming’s body thrashed about in a poor attempt to eject the demon.

However it was no use.

Lady Bone Demon quickly overpowered Ming and took control of her body.

CRACK!

Lady Bone Demon burst free from the chains.

Her eyes were clouded with an icy blue glow and her lips twisted into a sinister smirk.

“Ah, this vessel is much more suitable.” Lady Bone Demon giggled as she cracked her neck, “Come. We still have much to do.”

And with that, Lady Bone Demon gestured for Not-mayor to follow her.

A few days passed and Macaque was growing more and more miserable.

His latest scheme to capture Wukong and MK failed horribly, leaving him stranded in a pile of rubble.

He let out a frustrated groan as he punched the ground.

How could he have let this happen?!

He should’ve done more to save Ming but no!

He chose to be a coward and now his beloved sugarplum was trapped in the icy clutches of The Lady Bone Demon.

Macaque didn’t even want to think about all the horrible things Lady Bone Demon had in store for Ming.

He reached onto his pocket and pulled out a small lotus charm.

Macaque felt tears pour down his cheeks as he tenderly cradled the charm.

He still remembered what Ming had told him when she had given it to him:

“As long as you hold onto this charm, I will always be with you. No matter what.”

His fist clutched the charm tightly and held it to his chest.

“Ming…I’m so sorry. I’ve failed you…”

Suddenly an icy chill filled the air.

A chorus of eerie whispers rung out as a blue glow engulfed the sky.

“Oh you’ve got to be kidding me!”

Lady Bone Demon appeared behind him.

“What seems to be troubling you?”

Macaque stopped dead in his tracks.

That voice. It couldn’t be…

“M-Ming?”

Macaque carefully turned around only for his world to shatter once more.

There was Lady Bone Demon, wearing the face of his beloved sugarplum like a Halloween costume.

This had to be a nightmare! It just had to be!

“N-no! No! No!! Ming!”

Lady Bone Demon simply giggled.

“I see you have noticed my new vessel. Do you like it? It truly does suit me does it not?”

“Let Ming go! I already told you I’d bring the Monkey King and the kid! What more do you want from me?!” Macaque seethed as more tears dripped down his cheeks.

“Your loyalty.”

Hearing Lady Bone Demon speak in Ming’s voice cut Macaque like a knife.

“Since you cannot be trusted to follow the path of destiny willingly, drastic measures must be taken. This vessel will ensure you follow the path of destiny. Whether you are willing or not.” She continued, her voice echoing with whispers.

“No! Anything but this! Ming has nothing to do with any of this-”

“It was you who brought her into this by planning to betray me. Maybe now you realize that actions always have consequences.” Lady Bone Demon mused as she folded her arms behind her back.

Macaque was about to respond when-

SNATCH!

Out from another blue rune, leapt Not-mayor.

In the blink of an eye he snatched the lotus charm out of Macaque’s fist.

Not-mayor presented the charm to Lady Bone Demon.

“What is this? A trinket? How touching-” -Lady Bone Demon took the charm and played with it- “-Perhaps I should hold onto it for now. After all, it would be a shame if something were to happen to it, would it not?”

“C’mon! I can’t even have a reminder of the one I love?!” Macaque snarled as he balled his fists.

“You lost that privilege long ago. Now, make haste, For I will not have need of this vessel forever.”

With another icy breeze, Lady Bone Demon and Not-mayor vanished, taking Ming’s body with them.

“NO! NO!!! MING!!!!!”

Macaque fell to his knees and let out a pained scream.

He clutched the sides of his head as violent sobs wracked his body.

Macaque gritted his teeth as he rose to his feet.

He knew crying wasn’t going to save Ming but he knew what would:

Revenge

[purble-turble]

So true! Sun Wukong probably is the last to know that any of this is going on… he probably wanted to be more involved with MK after everything that happened in season 5, but it’s not so simple for him to just fully change this recluse lifestyle he’s had for 500 years. He’s taking some baby steps, going into the city and visiting more and getting to know the others, but it’s not enough to really get the full scope of the drama that’s going on here.

And Macaque is soooo into drama. Obviously if there is drama he’s gonna be in the thick of it.. Prince Red being all miserable after leaving MK absolutely reminds him of himself. His last conversation with Wukong while they were still friends/lovers was while he was under the mountain, the person he loved would NOT listen to him and kept pushing and pushing until he couldn’t take it anymore and snapped, telling him off for how reckless and selfish he had been all along! Of course he wasn’t going to stick around and deal with the backlash and pain from the selfish choices he made… he pities himself, and he pities Prince Red for the exact same reasons.

But Mac is also much nicer now, and MK despite all his flaws is a good kid.. he doens’t want him to make the same mistakes Wukong did and push away a person who is trying to get him to work on those flaws that are hurting him and his friends… I mean, he probably could do better than to tell Prince Red to ‘go save MK’ because that could mean a lot of things, and to Red it probably means ‘save him from Nezha’ which is, y’know… gonna lead to the big fight 😂

so i was all geared up to share something possibly angsty but then a new realization forcefully shoved its way into my head I've set MK up to have the same messy love/situationship triangle as Wukong... I've more or less given him his own macaque and azure

Oh my godddd the fucking drama!!!!! Incredible! This did not end well for those original boys, so it does not bode well for these new ones!

I love the parallel here and I 100% see it! I mean, Sun Wukong is not the most personally observant guy, so I don’t know that he would spot this necessarily… but I bet Macaque would. He’d have a better understanding of what was going on in that messed up WukongxAzurexMacaque triangle anyway, PLUS he’s got the six-eared hearing powers so he can literally listen in on all the shit Nezha and MK are spouting to each other when they think they’re in private..

Mac sees that Nezha is pushing MK to be a worse, more destructive version of himself and also knows it’s probably going to end in trouble for all of them. He probably also sees that Prince Red is being too passive about letting MK go down this path and if he really cared about him, he wouldn’t just leave him when things got hard.. he pushes Red to not make the same mistakes that he did- Don’t abandon the person who has your heart, because the choices or mistakes they make will only push you further apart and by the time you realize it, it may be too late…

Anyway, maybe the encouragement from Macaque is the push Prince Red needs to get himself together and step in one last time to “save MK.” Haha

[shera-dnd]

Here is an extremely self indulgent fic that no one asked for and I certainly wasn't planning to write, but the idea hit me so hard I just had to put it into words.

So here it is, my take on Transmasc Weiss Schnee (well, a take on that concept, considering how Truth in the Name is going). It's a bit silly, but I'm very proud of it.

Also it ended up being exactly 6969 words long somehow and I'm even more proud of that!

Weiss’s first impression with most of her friends had been atrocious to say the least. She insulted her partner’s intelligence, got in fights with all her teammates, and gods know her treatment of Jaune wasn’t exactly stellar. But none of them compared to her first impression with Sun Wukong.

Chasing the man halfway across the commercial district while spouting racist bullshit was not exactly how you made friends. But she was a better person now… well, she was working on it. Either way Sun was Blake’s friend now, and Weiss felt the need to compensate for their less than ideal introduction.

So here she was, hanging out on the roof of the dorms he’d been staying in, just a casual conversation, or at least Weiss’s best approximation of one. They were quick to find that they had just about nothing in common outside of being huntsmen, but Sun was happy to carry the entire conversation on his back, rambling on about whatever topic crossed his mind, while Weiss just smiled and nodded.

He was loud, unrefined and surprisingly pleasant to be around. In all honesty Weiss expected this to fail miserably, and was simply trying to be the one to offer an olive branch, but against all odds, she was enjoying his company. Though there was one thing that kept distracting her.

“Okay, I just have to ask,” Weiss blurted out, no longer able to avoid the topic, “why are you always shirtless?”

“Oh you know, I couldn’t deny the world all this,” Sun replied, with a bright smile and a nice flex. She was not impressed in the slightest, so he dropped the act, “for real though, it’s just comfortable, and kinda freeing in a way. I can move more freely, it isn’t so tight on my chest, and I get to enjoy the breeze.”

That was oddly simple. He dressed like that, not to project a certain image of himself, but because it made him feel comfortable. Reasonable as that was, the concept felt so alien to Weiss that she couldn’t help but scoff and dismiss his words.

“Are you sure you don’t just have an exhibitionist streak?”

Sun laughed it off and soon they returned to their conversation from before, and yet Sun’s words refused to leave her mind. Even days later she still kept thinking about his motive, though she couldn’t quite put a finger on why.

One day as she stepped out of the shower, looked herself in the mirror and...stopped. She did a few stretches, moved a little to test things out and paused in surprise. Sun was right, this was so much more comfortable, and there was definitely something to be said about the freedom of movement.

Though there was one problem with this new look, well two actually, and as small as they were they were still right there on her chest. There was no way in hell she could just walk around with those on display all the time. She kept staring at herself in the mirror, as if she could make her breasts disappear with a long enough deathglare.

Instead she came up with a far less extreme solution. With some quick brushes she put her extremely long hair to some good use, draping it over her chest. Thankfully her breasts were so small that even with this little to cover them it already looked like she didn’t have any at all. This of course would do nothing for her if she decided to walk around Beacon like this, but it should be enough for when she’s hanging out in the dormroom.

She should probably check if her teammates were okay with it first though.

“Uh...team?” Weiss quietly called, only her face poking out of the bathroom door.

“Hey, Ice Queen,” Yang replied, pausing the game she was playing with Ruby, “did you forget anything?”

“No, actually,” she clarified, pausing for a long long moment as she tried to figure out what to say next, “I have something to ask you.”

“Okay,” Ruby said, looking very confused, “don’t you wanna come out of the bathroom to ask it?”

“No!” Weiss answered so fast that now she had her entire team looking suspiciously at her, “I uh--would you guys mind if I started going topless around the dorm?”

They all looked at her dumbfounded, none of them sure what to say to that kind of question. The way Ruby shook her head it was clear she thought she had misheard her somehow. Never had their dorm room been so quiet, and with every passing moment of silence Weiss’s shame grew more and more. That was a stupid thing to ask, of course they’d say no! She wasn’t even sure why she was so disappointed by it.

“I blame Sun,” Blake declared, the first to break the growing silence.

“You were the one who got them to talk,” Ruby argued, “now his influence is rubbing off on her.”

Now they were joking. She was invested in this, and they were joking.

“No one’s influence is rubbing off on anything!” Weiss cut in, sounding angrier than even she expected, “I’m serious. Can I walk around topless or not?”

Thankfully that shut them down pretty quickly. No one invested enough in the joke to risk making their friend genuinely angry.

“Yeah, I’m cool with that,” Yang answered with a shrug.

“If it helps you feel comfortable,” Ruby tried, still uncertain if any of this was actually seriously happening right now.

“As long as you’re not weird about it,” was Blake’s response, her eyes returning to the book in her hands.

“Thank you,” Weiss sighed in relief, visibly relaxing now that her friends all seemed to be okay with her odd request. Which led her to her next odd request, “now can someone throw me my pants?”

“Wait! You actually own pants!?” Yang asked, gasping in fake shock.

“Please just shut up, and pass me those stupid pajama pants,” she groaned, so tired of Yang’s bullshit, “all my dresses are single pieces, and I don’t wanna walk around naked!”

Annoying as she was the entire time, Yang did pass her the damn pants. Weiss put those on, checked herself in the mirror to make sure her hair was positioned where she needed it, and braced herself to leave. She didn’t know why, but this felt important, important enough that she had exposed herself to all those stupid jokes earlier, so she gave herself a little moment to breathe, before finally stepping out into the dorm.

And it was as if nothing had changed. Sure they all glanced curiously at her - Ruby making a pointed effort to not look below her neckline - but there were no jokes, no comments, everyone just continued with their night, and...so did Weiss. It was strange really, everything seemed the same, but it just felt different, more freeing somehow. Maybe Sun really was right about this whole shirt thing.

The next day Weiss ordered several more pants online, along with a couple button up shirts for the colder months. If she had it her way she wouldn’t wear another top any time soon. But classes soon came along, and that meant wearing her uniform.

It was weird. She never had any problems with that uniform before, but today she could feel the fabric constricting her chest, holding too tight around her. And yet she felt exposed, the skirt she once wore without a care now feeling uncomfortably short, showing off far too much of her legs.

Her displeasure must have been clear on her face, because she was soon stopped by her team leader. “Is everything okay? You look uncomfortable,” Ruby asked, sweet as she always was.

“I’m fine,” Weiss lied, struggling to adjust her skirt, “I just never noticed how annoying this uniform was.”

Yang then saw fit to interject with another of her lovely jokes, “her tits have tasted freedom and refuse to be contained ever again.”

“That’s not… entirely untrue,” she admitted, grumpily, “I don’t wanna walk around Beacon with my chest exposed for all to see, but some comfort in my day to day wear would be appreciated.”

“The boys’ uniform is a lot less form fitting,” Blake offered, “maybe you could request new uniforms, or at least borrow someone else’s.”

“Oh,” Weiss hadn’t thought of that, “I’ll ask Ren if I can borrow one of his until I get time to talk to the staff about this uniform situation.”

Thankfully Ren was very helpful, and allowed her to take one of his without any questions or awkward comments. Jaune was being extremely Jaune the entire time she spent in the Team JNPR dorm room, but she was pretty good at filtering him out by now.

This whole uniform mess unfortunately left her with no time to fix up her makeup, and her ponytail ended up looking a lot messier and less elaborate than usual, but it all ended up tying the look together pretty nicely. Messy, but in a comfortable and surprisingly stylish way. She could definitely see herself rocking this look from here on out.

Sure, she got quite a few stares throughout the day, but no one dared to bother her or comment on it. She even got a little thumbs up from Coco, which was high praise coming from the most stylish person in all of Beacon.

Requesting the replacement uniforms was also surprisingly easy. Ozpin didn’t really care how students chose to present, as long as what they were wearing was part of the uniform, the choice of gender mattered little to him. Though he and Glynda did share a strange look after she made her request.

Like they knew something she didn’t.

Days went by and soon this became the new normal for her. Hanging out topless in the dorms, wearing her handsomely disheveled look to class, actually focusing on doing what made her comfortable, and not maintaining the image she had been trained to maintain at all times.

Though it still infuriated her that she couldn’t figure out a good look to replace her usual combat gear. Sure, she had picked that dress herself, but it had been a clinical choice, a coldly calculated maneuver so she could project the precise kind of unapproachable aura she wanted. Now that she had begun dressing how she liked, she was at a loss for what to do.

At least when team RWBY was practicing alone she could just wear her casual clothes and not bother much about it.

Speaking of that casual look, she finally got her hands on one last thing to bring the look together. A silver necklace now hung low from her neck, holding the Schnee family crest just over her heart, a reminder that even dressed like this she was the heiress to the Schnee family, and the SDC.

She checked herself in the mirror. Hair tied in a messy bun, jean jacket left completely unbuttoned, and only closed enough to hide her breasts. The pants she was wearing were pretty loose and comfortable, and her shoes had not even the hint of a heel. By all accounts the person in the bathroom mirror right now looked nothing like the Weiss Schnee everyone knew, but for the first time she could remember, her reflection did not look like a stranger in her eyes.

A single tear fell from her eye. Well that was odd, what reason did she have for crying? It was just some new clothes, it shouldn’t get her all emotional like this.

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, Weiss was snapped out of this emotionally fragile state by the sound of someone knocking on the dormroom door.

“Hey, Sun,” Yang greeted, “Blake isn’t around, but I can give her a call if you want.”

“Actually, I was looking for Weiss,” he told her, “it's been a while since we hung out, and I thought I’d introduce her to a friend.”

“Hey,” Weiss greeted, stepping into the dormroom proper, “what was that about a friend?”

“Yeah, he--” Sun turned around to talk to her, but immediately went slack jawed, clearly unable to process Weiss’s new look, or more accurately, that she almost stole his look entirely. “Wow!”

Well, at least he wasn’t checking her out or being a creep.

“I’ll pretend you were just frozen by my stunning good looks,” she joked, leaning against the doorframe.

“Y-Yeah,” he stammered, much to Weiss’s and Yang’s amusement, “uh, you wanna go meet my partner?”

“That depends, am I gonna have to button this up?” She asked, surprising even herself with that condition.

“Damn, Ice Queen,” Yang commented, “you wanna make a good impression that bad?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She complained, crossing her arms, and promptly realizing exactly what she meant, “ah, right.”

Why did she sound so disappointed at that? It felt so stupid.

“Don’t worry. Neptune hangs out with me all the time,” Sun assured her, trying to casually wave off her worries, “I’m sure he won’t even notice.”

He sounded almost empathetic towards her silly plight. It made her feel a little less weird about it, even if she still had no explanation for why it got to her so much.

Thankfully Sun didn’t push the subject any further, and they were lucky enough to not run into anyone on the way out. At least no one who would recognize her, everyone who did see them just assumed they were two dudes hanging out. A thought that pleased Weiss far more than it had any right to.

And once again the two of them found themselves on a roof, casually chatting away as they waited for Sun’s partner to join them.

“You really took my words to heart, huh?” Sun teased, nudging her with his elbow.

She gave him her most exasperated eye roll, but had no means to argue on that point, “I guess you had a point.”

“Of course I did,” Sun nodded proudly, “but are you sure you don’t just have an exhibitionist streak?”

“Shirts are very uncomfortable, okay!” She nearly shouted, shooting him a death glare for daring to use her words against her, “if I didn’t have to worry about people ogling my breasts, I’d walk around topless everywhere.”

“Boy, do I know that feeling,” Sun joked. Or at least Weiss assumed he joked, because she wasn’t sure how he could relate to that particular problem.

“What do you me--”

“Hey, Sun!” Another voice called. It belonged to a tall and handsome man with blue hair. He looked pretty tired, with sweat dripping down his brow. Not like that took away from his good looks in the slightest. “Next time... pick a meeting place that isn’t up four flights of stairs, okay?”

“How else am I gonna keep you in tip top shape?” Sun laughed, giving his friend a powerful slap on the back that nearly sent him flying.

The man seemed ready to get in an argument with his teammate, but then he noticed they had company. He walked up to Weiss, running a hand through his hair and shooting her a winning smile

“Hey,” he greeted, with a little wink, before his eyes drifted just a little lower and he nearly jumped back in surprise, “shit! Sorry, dude, I thought you were a girl. My bad.”

That was not the reaction she’d hope for. She knew her new look was a bit different, but were people really confusing her for a boy now? That was just silly, Weiss was still very clearly a girl, right? Her confusion mixed with the frustration of having Neptune’s flirtation cut short, and with a bizarre pang of... joy? Pride? Weiss wasn’t quite sure, but it was only making her more confused.

And Sun - helpful as he was - decided to intervene before things got any more awkward, “actually--”

“I get that all the time,” Weiss interrupted, “I’m Weiss, by the way.”

She wasn’t sure what drove her to do it, but when she noticed Sun about to correct him, she couldn’t keep herself from cutting in. Maybe she was just curious to see how long she could keep the act up, how long she could keep this man convinced that she was a man too. Yeah, that was it, just a little game, and once he figured things out they would all just laugh about it.

“Neptune,” he greeted, offering her his fist. It took Weiss a moment to register what the gesture meant, but after that brief pause she punched it, “I see Sun has converted you to his sense of fashion.”

“He had a point,” she admitted, begrudgingly, “I guess I just never dressed with my own comfort in mind before.”

“That’s nice and all, but I just couldn’t sacrifice the style,” Neptune replied, making finger guns at her.

Both Sun and Weiss took offense to that remark.

Weiss stepped forward, standing very close to him, then she ran a hand through her hair and shot him a winning smile, “what? Don’t have the confidence to rock the look?”

Neptune stammered, completely taken by surprise by this surprisingly pretty ‘guy’ using his tactics against him. Sun could only laugh at his expense. “He’s got you there, dude.”

‘He’. That word didn’t bother Weiss nearly as much as it should. Though it was probably just the satisfaction of having him play along with her little game. Yeah, that was totally it, and she would think no further on this subject.

Definitely not.

“Look, the shirtless thing just isn’t for everyone, okay?” He argued, looking completely embarrassed.

Team no shirt couldn’t help but laugh, Sun even giving her a high five. This was... nice, actually. They weren’t nearly as cool as they were trying to be, but they had a little dorky charm to them, and she felt comfortable hanging out with this particular pair of idiots.

From there on Weiss started hanging out more with the two dumbasses, and even got to meet the rest of team SSSN. Of course this didn’t mean she was neglecting team RWBY, in fact she even deigned to play Ruby’s little board game with them. It went about as well as she expected.

“‘Sup losers,” Sun greeted, as he walked into the ridiculous drama that now developed around the table, “Ruby, Blake, Yang, Ice King.”

“Really?” Weiss complained, though she still got up to give him a fist bump.

“Hey, dude,” Neptune called as well, still fully convinced that Weiss was a guy.

“Hey,” she called back, greeting him with a wink.

Weiss was too distracted by her new friends to notice her other friends looking completely baffled at her. Ruby went as far as pinching her own arm to make sure she didn’t just dream that all up.

“Oh my gods,” Nora gasped from the neighboring table, “what happened to our Ice Qu--”

A well placed glyph pulled the chair from under her, shutting her up before she could out Weiss.

“Anyways, nice to see you two, but we should probably get going, right?” Weiss asked the rest of her team, nervously.

“Yeah, let’s,” Blake replied with a sigh, “this is all a waste of time anyway.”

Ah right, she was still dealing with all that stuff.

Thankfully, the rest of the team agreed to leave, if only to keep an eye on Blake. Though Ruby’s mind was still on whatever the hell Weiss had just done.

“So what was all that about?” She asked.

“What? Me and Sun are friends now,” Weiss replied, sounding almost offended.

“But the whole Ice King thing? And you cutting Nora off?” Ruby didn’t seem to be sure which of those surprised her more.

“I - uh - well, Neptune confused me for a boy when we first met,” she said, as if that explained anything, “and I thought I’d play along, just to see how long it would take him to realize it.”

“I see,” Ruby answered, though she sounded just as confused as before, “was the winking part of the act?”

That got Weiss to blush, “no, I was just, you know,” she tried, but it was obvious that Ruby did not know what she meant, “...trying to get him to ask me out.”

“Oh!” Ruby exclaimed, seeming completely caught by surprise, “wouldn’t you pretending to be a guy kinda get in the way of that?”

She did have a point there. If Weiss kept the act on for too long then she wouldn’t get to invite him to the ball. Though Scarlet did joke that Neptune’s heterosexuality was one stiff breeze away from crumbling over. Wait, that didn’t help her at all, if he found out he was gay then she wouldn’t get to date him at all. Would her own flirting somehow backfire so tremendously it causes him to come out?

Nope, she was not gonna address this mess at all. She was just gonna keep her little act, and keep flirting with him, because she was genuinely having fun, and it had been so long since she did anything because it was fun.

“It’s not like I’m gonna keep the act forever,” Weiss reasoned, “I’m sure he’ll figure it out eventually, we’ll just laugh it all off, and I might even get to ask him out.”

“Okay,” Ruby shrugged and moved on, putting an end to the conversation. It was clear she still didn't understand what Weiss was trying to do, but she didn't judge either and that was greatly appreciated.

What wasn’t appreciated was her putting Weiss and Neptune on separate teams for their secret mission. Ruby knew she was into him, so why would she take away such a perfect chance for them to get together? Was she jealous or something? Did she think that if Weiss started dating him that she wouldn’t have time to spend with her?

No, that was just too silly, Ruby was a capable leader and was probably just making what she saw as the best tactical decision. Didn’t mean Weiss couldn’t be grumpy about it, especially after she got ditched halfway through the mission.

Thankfully she got to take out her frustrations on a giant atlesian mech, though she was still furious with the fact that Roman managed to escape, especially after he dropped that stupid nickname on her, ‘Ice Queen’. Neptune wasn’t even there to hear it, but it still grated against her. She was really starting to hate the sound of it.

But that was the least of her worries. Right now she had a party to organize, a boy to ask out, and a burned out teammate to deal with. At least she had the help of her team on that last one, each of them trying their best to try to get Blake to rest and relax for a bit, maybe even enjoy the dance with them.

They all failed, of course, but they tried. They barely got to talk about the dance before she walked out on them, not even sparing a glance back.

“Great,” Yang complained.

“She can’t keep going like this,” Weiss agreed.

And then they heard a knock at the door. Well that was strange, was she back already? Weiss got up to go check, none of them noticing the problem with that, used as they were to Weiss’s new casual hangout outfit.

She opened the door to find Jaune, with a guitar in hand and his eyes closed, he strummed it a few times and sang out - if that could even be called singing - “Wei--”

That was when he opened his eyes and they were all reminded that in that moment Weiss Schnee was completely topless. He stumbled backwards in surprise, an apology halfway out his mouth before Weiss slammed the door on him. Not out of anger over his stupid display of… whatever that was, but out of so much embarrassment.

“Why did none of you tell me!?” She demanded, her voice almost a scheech.

The two sisters could only shrug.

“I guess we got used to seeing you like that,” Yang offered.

“Yeah, I kinda get weirded out when I see you in uniform now,” Ruby added.

They were used to seeing her like this? That was a strangely pleasant surprise, knowing that her team was as comfortable with this as she was. It felt reassuring in a way that Weiss couldn't quite understand.

No, it was more like she was actively refusing to understand it at this point.

Weiss felt almost touched, which meant it was time for another one of Yang’s lovely comments, “but on the bright side you really made Jaune’s whole week with that show.”

“Yang Xiao Long!”

After verbally tearing her best friend a new one, Weiss focused her mind on the primary task at hand: Inviting Neptune to the dance, preferably in a way that didn’t make her look like an idiot like Jaune.

So she put on her nicest jacket, pulled the sleeves up to show off a little, and spent about an hour in front of the mirror trying to get her hair to the perfect degree of messy. She checked herself out one last time, and damn was she looking handsome. This was the kind of look that would have made her swoon. Filled with confidence, she winked at the mirror, and did some finger guns... then decided to never do that ever again.

With that done, she took a deep breath, steeled herself, and went off to find her dream date. Who happened to be going for a walk right at the same time. Perfect! Now all she had to do was walk up to him and ask.

“Neptune!” She called, sounding a bit more nervous than she would have liked.

“Hey dude,” he greeted, offering her a fist, which she punched on reflex.

Not the best way to start this conversation.

“So I know this is a bit... unorthodox, but I’ve been thinking,” she began, cursing herself for choosing the word ‘unorthodox’, “would you like to accompany me to the dance?”

“As a friend?” He asked, dealing a terrible blow to Weiss’s self esteem.

“As my date,” she corrected.

“Shit, sorry dude,” Neptune awkwardly apologized, scratching the back of his head, “I don’t really swing that way.”

“Oh”

“Like I’m flattered, honestly,” he continued, trying to soften a blow that had already shattered Weiss’s heart to pieces, “but I’m just not into other men.”

“I see,” Weiss replied, completely stunned, “sorry for bothering you.”

Neptune apologized a few more times, but Weiss was too devastated to process what was being said. She just muttered a few words of reassurance, and dragged herself back to the dormroom. Ruby was the first to find her there, a complete sobbing mess, hugging her pillow in the dark.

“Weiss!” Ruby called, as she turned on the light and shut the door behind her, “what happened?”

Weiss didn’t want to talk about it. She wanted to bury her face in her pillow, and never interact with another human being again. Ruby had other plans. She climbed onto the bed, taking Weiss’s hand and offering her the sweetest look anyone other than Klein had ever offered her.

It was just enough to help Weiss compose herself at least enough to respond, “I asked Neptune to the dance.”

Ruby didn’t respond, just gave her hand a reassuring squeeze, and waited for her to continue.

“And he said no,” she continued, tears threatening to flow again, “he said he wasn’t into guys.”

That caught Ruby by surprise, though Weiss was too deep in her own feelings to understand why until she heard her say, “but Weiss, you’re not a ‘guy’.”

“Oh,” the sound escaped Weiss’s mouth unbidden, she was too dazed to stop it. At least she was also too dazed to cry again, “yes, you’re right.”

Her teammate didn’t seem all that convinced by that emotionless response, “are you?”

A nervous laughter forced its way out, along with an uncomfortable smile, “of course I’m not. I’m Weiss Schnee, heiress and huntress, and a girl.”

Then why did saying those words feel like stabbing her own heart out?

“Is that who you want to be?” Ruby continued to ask.

No!

“It’s who I have to be.” She couldn’t afford to be anyone else. Couldn’t afford to be anything but the perfect heiress, the perfect daughter.

“But who do you want to be?” She insisted, taking Weiss’s other hand, and looking her in the eye.

And in that moment Weiss could see it, reflected in those silver eyes of hers, a boy with messy hair, a loose shirt, with the crest of the family he was so proud of hanging from his neck. He saw himself, and in a moment all those thoughts he kept at bay for so long, all those things he refused to address, it all came flooding back, and once again he cried.

“I want to be a boy!”

Ruby pulled him into a hug and let him cry all he wanted.

“Weiss,” she called, rubbing gentle circles on his back, “you already are.”

“Oh,” he gasped for the second time that night, “I-I guess I am.”

Weiss didn’t know how long they stayed like that, but by the time the others returned he had already cried everything out of his system. Well, almost everything, he was pretty sure he could cry a little more depending on how everyone else reacted to the news.

Not like he had the guts to open up to them yet. No, he just sat there and continued to pretend for the rest of the night. Ruby didn’t feel like pushing him into confessing, which was something he was oh so grateful for, but she really looked ready to correct her team any time they misgenered him.

Come to think of it, Blake and Yang didn’t use all that many gendered terms for him. In fact they seemed to have been avoiding those for a while now. That couldn’t mean what he thought that meant, right? They couldn't have figured it out before he did, could they?

It all just added to the mess of questions bouncing around in his head. Too many thoughts keeping his mind abuzz even as they got ready for bed. And once everyone had fallen asleep, he still laid there, staring at the bottom of Ruby’s bunk, wide awake and full of worries.

“Hey,” he called, quietly, not wanting to wake anyone up, “are you guys awake?”

“Yeah,” Ruby was the first to answer.

“Mhm,” then was Yang.

Then some noncommittal grumbles from Blake.

And that was everyone. He got the attention of his whole team, better make the most of it.

“Can I tell you guys something?” He asked, voice almost dying in his throat.

“Shoot,” Yang answered, rolling in bed to look at him.

“I uh…” he tried to speak, but he was so nervous. He knew he didn’t have any reason to worry, he knew none of them would judge, that they would still love him. But the thought of saying it out loud still terrified him. No, this was his team, his best friends, they loved him unconditionally, and they deserved to know the truth. “I think… no, no I’m pretty sure of it. I’m a boy.”

There was a moment of silence and Weiss’s mind got filled with wilder and wilder terrifying scenarios of all the things that could go wrong now, all the ways he could have fucked up, and how they would never want him again. Then Yang decided to say something stupid again.

“Took you long enough.” She yawned.

“Yang!” Ruby yelled, throwing a pillow at her sister.

But Weiss just laughed. What else could he do? His best friends had somehow figured out he was a boy long before he did. It just made it all feel so absurd, so silly. So of course he couldn’t do anything but laugh.

“Yang,” he called, “you’re the worst.”

“Love you too, Ice King,” she joked, with that stupid little nickname that he was learning to love, “glad you got to figure yourself out.”

“I’m happy for you,” Blake muttered, still her over-exhausted and grumpy self, but at least she got some happiness to spare for him.

“Not gonna say anything, Rubes?” Yang teased.

“I don’t have to,” Ruby declared proudly, “I helped him out of the closet.”

Weiss could not deny the little thrill of joy he felt at hearing his partner call him ‘he’.

“Speaking of which,” Yang began, a smirk on her face that made Weiss want to hide his behind his pillow, “how did you figure it out?

“We have a long day tomorrow! We should probably get some sleep!” Weiss blurted out, vehemently refusing to answer that question, “okay! That’s all! Good night!”

He turned around in his bed and proceeded to pretend to sleep. He could still hear his teammates chuckling, and Yang tossing Ruby’s pillow back.

“Good night, Weiss.”

“Good night, dude.”

“Sleep well.”

Weiss was right, he still had plenty of tears left to cry.

But after a surprisingly emotional night, he had far more important things on his mind. Primarily, getting ready for the dance. If he had taken an hour to get ready just to ask a guy out, he was gonna take at least all afternoon to get ready to properly go to said dance. Thankfully his new date was patient.

Somewhat.

“Weiss, hurry up!” Ruby complained, for the fifth time that day, which showed sage-like patience for her standards, “it’s just a dance.”

“It isn’t just a dance,” he complained from inside the bathroom, “it’s my first time going out as a guy. I gotta make a good first impression.”

Ruby couldn’t really argue with that. It’s why she offered to be his date, so he wouldn’t be alone in what felt like such a huge step for him. Yang would have offered to accompany him too, but she was too busy wrangling Blake.

And after what felt like an eternity he took a deep breath and stepped out of the bathroom, “how do I look?”

Weiss had spent most of his life mastering the art of looking absolutely perfect in every way. No flaws were permitted, no mistakes, no changes. These past few weeks had taught him how to pull off flawed in just the perfect way.

Weiss’s hair was tied in a neat ponytail, though a few strands hung loose, covering his good eye just enough to highlight his scar. His dress shirt was oh so slightly ruffled, with the top buttons undone, and his sleeves cuffed at his biceps. The tie too was just loose enough that it would look accidentally messy, but tight enough that it would look sloppy. And to finish the look he tossed his suit jacket over his shoulder, put his other hand in his pocket, and gave Ruby a little cocky half smile.

His noble and kind team leader giggled. She had the gall to look him in the eye, and giggle. Weiss had never been so offended in his life. He must have looked completely appalled, because Ruby quickly began to apologize.

“Sorry, sorry, you look amazing, I swear,” she offered, though he remained unamused, “it’s just funny seeing you try so hard to look good when you’re already super pretty all the time.”

He wanted to tell her that he wanted to look handsome, not pretty, but the sheer blunt honesty of that comment was enough to shut him up. Weiss had been called pretty for years, and he could objectively agree with that assessment, but it never felt true, it always sounded fake or forced. Now it was so obvious why, because the moment someone saw him for who really was, the moment someone saw him drop the act, and still told him he was beautiful, he could feel his heart soar.

He could definitely get used to this.

“Come on, Weiss,” she called, offering him her arm, “we got a dance to go to.”

Right, yeah, the dance. First time going out as a boy, nothing to stress over, nope, totally fine.

Thankfully his team seemed determined to make sure he had a good time.

“Damn, Ice King,” Yang greeted them at the door, “here to make everyone question their sexuality?”

It was such a stupid comment, but it did wonders for his nerves, “nah, just here to have fun with my favorite partner,” he answered, “though I wouldn’t mind the prospect.”

“Just be careful not to catch Jaune in the collateral, alright? Pyrrha would never forgive you if you did,” Yang replied with a chuckle, before waving them in, “now go have fun, you two.”

Right, Pyrrha. She was coming to the dance alone, right? Maybe now that he knew he was a guy he had a shot with her. Wait, what was he thinking? He didn’t even know if he was into Pyrrha like that, though he got pretty obsessed with her for a while after they met. Was he just trying to be gal pals with her, or did he have a crush on her?

You know what? He already figured out his gender identity today, he could figure out his sexuality later. Right now he had other priorities in mind, like enjoying the dance with his lovely date.

Ruby was extremely socially awkward, couldn’t even walk in heels properly, let alone dance, barely knew how to behave in public most of the time, but she was still Weiss’s best friend. She was his sweet dolt, who put herself in this awkward spot where she knew she would struggle, because she refused to let him struggle alone. So Weiss made it his mission to make sure she knew how much he valued her.

A few dances later Ruby excused herself to go get some punch and rest her poor feet a bit, and that left Weiss to wander around, now filled with much more confidence, thanks to his amazing partner. It wasn’t long before he found the two idiots he was looking for. In the highest place available of course.

“Sun! Neptune!” He called, leaning against the doorframe.

“Yo, Ice King,” Sun greeted, shooting him some finger guns “looking good.”

“Hey, Wei--Wow!” Neptune blurted out, earning a smug little smile from Weiss. If all it took was a stiff breeze, then Neptune looked like he got hit by a hurricane, “you--you’re looking pretty classy, dude.”

“Did you have to sound so surprised?” He asked, not amused by the added comment, “I’m a classy man.”

“No offense, but you dress like a surfer bro,” Neptune replied, doing his best to not make eye contact with him, “I mean it looks good on you, but it isn’t exactly classy.”

“I do not!” He almost screeched, “Sun, do I dress like a surfer bro?”

Sun, that traitor, was howling with laughter. Probably thinking back to Weiss’s old pretty little princess shtick, and how fast that got thrown out the window.

Oh gods, he did dress like a surfer bro now.

What have those two done to him? Well, they helped him figure himself out for starters, so he should probably thank them for that.

“You two done making fun of me?” He asked, waiting on Sun’s stupid ass to stop laughing for a second, “good, because I need to tell you two something.”

Sun got just a bit more laughter out, before finally wheezing to a stop, “what is it?”

“I wanted to thank you,” he said, his voice softer than before, “if you hadn’t talked to me about going shirtless I would have taken years to figure out I’m a boy.”

Next thing Weiss knew he was being pulled into a rib crushing hug. Thank goodness his aura activated on reflex.

“I knew you’d figure it out eventually,” Sun cheered.

Still trapped in that hug, Weiss had to struggle to reply, “how?”

“Oh, I realized it the moment you mentioned you hated your tits,” he answered, letting him go, “I’ve been there before.”

With that he pulled his shirt open a little more and Weiss got to see something he had only caught a glimpse of before, a pair of scars on his chest. At first he thought those had been combat scars, but they were too precise and too symmetrical. Almost like surgery scars.

“Oh.”

“Yeah,” he chuckled, closing his shirt again, “so mind me asking what cracked your egg?”

Well, if he was gonna admit it to anyone it was gonna be him, “Neptune said he wasn’t into boys, and I cried for an hour. The worst part is that I wouldn’t have noticed something was wrong if Ruby hadn’t mentioned it.”

Once again, Sun started cackling, though this time Neptune winced, “sorry about that, dude.”

"It's okay. It helped me realize who I am, and I still managed to get myself a date,” he assured him, giving him a tap on the shoulder, “and it was fun watching you question your sexuality for the past few weeks.”

That got the poor guy to blush once more. Oh, this was still fun.

“Speaking of questioning sexualities,” Sun interrupted, giving Weiss a nudge, “shouldn’t you be enjoying your date with Ruby?”

Now it was Weiss’s turn to blush, “r-right. Yeah, I should go check on her. Thanks again!”

With that he was off. Back to his teammates. It’s wild thinking back to how much he’s changed since coming to Beacon, since meeting all these wonderful and weird people. And he looked forward to changing even more, learning more about himself and the world around him. Especially if he got to continue doing so surrounded by the friends who loved him, no matter what.

[mexcraziness-art]

Monkie Kid/JTTW OC: Liang Xingti

Okay, so this bio is going to be pretty messy, mostly because I’m really tired these days, but also because I’m still reading Journey to the West, and still waiting on the new seasons of the show. So I can’t go into details too deeply until I find out more, this is more of a general outline of what I have in mind for her so far!

Name: Liang Xingti (亮星体),Tong Bi Yuanhou (通臂���猴) Nickname: Gab Gender: Female

Liang Xingti, also known as the Long/Magic Armed Gibbon or just „Gab”, much like Wukong, she’s one of the Four Spiritual Monkeys, see the one and only mention in Journey to the West:

„The third kind is the magic−armed gibbon that can catch the sun or moon, shrink mountains, see what is auspicious and what is not, and fool around with heaven and earth.”

History: Xingti was born from a cloud after a full solar-eclipse, as the circumstances of her birth concerned Heaven she was soon taken in by Taibai Jinxing, the Gold Star of Venus, as a discipline. She grew up in the Heavenly Court, and was trained in combat by Erlang Shen. Despite now being a Heavenly Warrior she was mostly running errands for Jinxing and the Jade Emperor. After Wukong showed up in Heaven she was really intrigued by him, as she never met a monkey like her before. She developed a strange mix of appreciation and irritation towards Wukong as time went on, and after he became the Great Sage Equaling Heaven the two of them became semi-friends, usually sparring together. Wukong also showed her a new perspective on life, and she began to internally question her life and role in the heavenly court. When Wukong rebelled against and rampaged through Heaven she tried to fight him as well, and meanwhile normally they were pretty evenly matched, she didn’t stand a chance, as her doubts held her back and Wukong’s rage filled War Form was simply way out of her league at the time. After the Buddha trapped Wukong under the mountain her doubts in Heaven increased, now with added guilt on top. After Heaven banished Sandy, and their treatment of Bai Long Ma, she finally had enough and tried to leave Heaven. She was warned by her master Jinxing that Heaven might take this as an act of rebellion, so she was forced to stay, but she took more and longer trips to Earth. When she heard Wukong was freed she occasionally visited him and his company of their Journey, though his situation left a bad taste in her mouth. After this she spent the next few hundred years doing the same, running errands for Heaven and fighting demons on their orders.

(The following is mostly relevant to the 4+1 Monkeys AU)

In the present day she was sent by Heaven to Earth to find Wukong and get help to investigate and try to capture Macaque for reasons the Jade Emperor didn’t share with her, this lead to her being suspicious about her mission from the start. When she went to Flower Fruit Mountain to get Wukong’s help, she ran into MK, and soon found out that Wukong trains him as his successor, which lead the two of them to having a fight, and Xingti leaving to capture Macaque alone. However she was followed by MK who offered to help her, which she accepted, endangering MK in the process. Of course Wukong showed up last minute and the two of them captured Macaque. Later Xingti revelaed she doesn’t want to turn Macaque over to Heaven until she finds out more about their motivations, so she decided to stay on Flower Fruit Mountain with Macaque as their prisoner until they find out more, which left Wukong less than impressed.

Personality: Having grown up in Heaven, Gab was a model discipline, she never questioned authority, or the orders she was given. She was trained to be level headed and controlled as Heaven was vary of her possible wild nature. After she met Wukong and started to question Heaven she slowly became more rebellious, second guessing her orders and asking too many questions. As she spent more and more time on Earth and away from Heaven, she developed a loud, brash and snarky personality, she has a crude sense of humor, and likes to mess with people for the fun of it. She’s playful but likes to see just how far she was push someone by annoying them before they get pissed off. However also having grown up in Heaven, she grew up pretty isolated, and making meaningful connections is pretty hard for her. She doesn’t handle rejection well, and gets quickly angered when she feels confused or conflicted about something, specially if it’s relationship related. She also uses this to hide her sensitivity, which she views as a weakness. She mostly tries to show the affection and fondness she has for someone by being an absolute pest in their lives, and hope for the best.

Powers and Abilities:

She has all the standard abilities of a Spiritual Monkey and a Heavenly Warrior, including: -Immortality -Super strength and super speed -Chi manipulation -Cloud Generation -Flight

Other Abilities: -36 Heavenly Transformations (much like Wukong, she can’t change her tail) -Cloud Clones -She can use the essence of the Sun and Moon for various spells and magical abilities, she can also cause full lunar and solar ecplises by forcing the sun and the moon to move in place, this gives her a full power boost however this is also one of the things that can kill her. -Size changing of objects: She can change the size of anything to any size at will. -Fortune Sense/Opportunity Sense: She can sense how favorable a situation/decision could be.

Weapon: Her staff, made out of a droplet of Sun and Moon, is her signature weapon. She usually keeps it in her belt on her back, in it’s basic Handle form. She can command it to grow into a staff, which is how she usually uses it in combat. And at it’s strongest, she can summon a Sun and Moon blades on each end, as it’s third form.

Relationships:

Sun Wukong: She has sort of a back-and-forth relationship with Wukong. She loves to annoy and pester him and constantly challenge him to sparring matches, as they’re one of the few people who actually pose a challenge to the other. She likes to get a rise out of him, to knock him down a peg from his high and mightiness. She also loves to constantly remind him of his embarassing events in Heaven. Generally she’s just a little shit towards Wukong, but in a friendly, familiar way. To Wukong she’s more of an unwelcome nuisance that he’d rather avoid, but at the end of the way they both hold a fondness for eachother, just locked away deep, deep down, due to their shared experience with Heaven, and really both of them would rather die than ever admit it out loud.

MK: Much like Wukong, she likes to bully MK in the friendly way. She constantly pesters and makes fun of him, sometimes even „showing him some fighting moves” just so she can knock him around a bit. She sees the potential in him, how powerful he could become, and how he’s better than any of them ever were. However this is also the reason she doen’t go easy on him. Despite all this she has a soft spot for MK, when she’s not messing with him, she’s always telling him cool stories of her and Wukong’s old days, that didn’t make it into the legends. She also always makes sure to tell the embarassing bits about Wukong.

Macaque: Her relationship with Macaque is… complicated and a massive WIP to put it simply, so this one will be super brief.

After they captured him, Xingti basically became his de facto prison warden. She constantly followed him around and just kept an eye on him in general. Because of this she soon became super intrigued by him, not only beause he was the second Spiritual Monkey she ever met, but mostly because she felt as if they were on a common wavelength. After Macaque’s initial escape attempts, and various arguments with Wukong, she set out to try to understand him and his past. As time passed and Macaque actually warmed up to them they grew pretty close. As it turns out they have a similiar sense of humor, and both of their favourite hobbies is making Wukong miserable, she quickly grew a soft spot for Macaque and before she even realised it she had all but developed a crush on him. Macaque had soon noticed the obvious changes in her behaviour, and as he had been faking his redemption this whole time, he decided to take advantage of her feelings for him. He played along and peretended to fancy her as well, they have even developed sort of a romantic relationship, (this whole thing of course didn’t leave Macaque as unaffected as he liked to believe) and things were actually pretty good, until Macaque saw an opportunity to betray them and make it hurt. This of course left Xingti more than emotionally devastated, and she swore to make Macaque pay herself. This is pretty much what I have in mind so far, I'm sure I left out a lot, I'll add them later when I remember them! And hopefully I'll draw a ref of my other OC, Mandy, the 4th Spiritual Monkey soon as well!

Art by @mexcraziness-art

Liang Xingti and 4+1 Monkeys AU belongs to @mexcraziness-art

Monkie Kid belongs to Lego

[the-night-writer1]

The dusk, the dawn and the twilight au Shanyao gets really ill and Macaque and especially Wukong go crazy with worry because of his poor health

It was a terrible day for Wukong and his little Shanyao. The poor six month old fell ill and was crying his eyes out when he wasn't miserable while asleep. Wukong couldn't do much to easy the baby's misery. He could only provide kisses and letting the baby listen to his heartbeat between medicine laced bottles. It had been like this for 2 weeks.

"I know I know sweetheart, Baba knows you're miserable" Wukong said as he rubbed the wailing infant's back between wheezy coughs. Wukong was miserable seeing his little lighting bug in so much pain.

Wukong also missed his other children but Shanyao needed him right now. He was grateful to Princess Iron Fan and the Bull king for offering to let Xiaotain and Eclipse stay at their castle until Shanyao was well. His siblings being so young did not understand Shanny could not play with them. They'd constantly try to play and get Shanny out of his crib. They didn't know any better.

Princess Iron Fan sent him daily updates on his babies in her care and he send updates on Shan.

Macaque slammed open their bedroom door exhausted and holding a rare herb.

"I got it! These should better Shanyao's health! They are the freshest and best medical herbs!" Macaque said excitedly over Shanyao's cry- coughing. He'd found it! Certainly these herbs could cure their baby boy! Right? It lessen his misery, he'd breath easier right? He hadn't wasted a week in the mountains for these herbs for nothing right?

Wukong looked at the herbs he'd brought and sighed softly. They weren't meant for infants. They worked for kids five years and older. They were too strong little babes like Shanyao.

"Plum he's not old enough for those or the doctor would have prescribed them two weeks ago" Wukong said softly as he turned away to not see Macaque's defeated look.

Macaque threw the herbs on the ground. Dammit! He just wanted their son well, he hated hearing the wheezing and wailing because his baby was miserable.

They both hated the pain their youngest was going through. Macaque kicked the herbs aside and walked over to Wukong and Shanyao.

"let me hold him for a while. You need rest Peaches." Macaque said as he carefully took the crying babe,"it's okay daddy's here Shanyao. Daddy's got you my little candle light. Daddy's here."

"he has premade bottles in ice. Just ask the maid for them in an hour" Wukong said as he kissed Macaque's cheek. Little Shan's cries softened a little bit as he gripped his dad's shirt"Daddy's gonna take care of you while baba tries to nap a little bit lighting bug. I love you so much"

"we both do candle light"Macaque said before he kissed the baby's forehead. After Macaque and Shanyao left the room Wukong collapsed onto his knees and sobbed into his hands.

He'd never felt such a need to cry before. His poor baby was miserable and there was nothing he could do. Shanyao was always his concern. The poor thing was always fighting for survival and clinging to life while his siblings were completely healthy.

How was that far to poor Shanyao? While was his poor little baby not gifted with the same immune system as his other babies.

Why?

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Alright, back to our Journey to the West. Last time Monkey had his big stick taken. This bummed him out, but then he realized that the monster knew of him, and while he likes to think he’s awesome like that, he’s also smart enough to realize it likely means this is another god slumming it. So he goes to make his petition to the Jade Emperor in a respectful manner that kinda freaks him out considering who it’s coming from. But an investigation is held and… they got nothing. But hey, he can take reinforcements! Who also fail miserably. Prince Nata has his six divine weapons stolen too, the fire gods have the practical zoo of flaming animals they unleashed snatched up too, and the demon plays an Uno Reverse card when they try drowning him. Wukong gets so fed up with this he tries to go in boxing, and it turns out the MotW is good enough at that too. So… this encounter could be going better.

Then the heavenly hosts remark that with as good as Monkey is at thieving the best shot they have now is him sneaking in to find the demon’s artifact that’s humiliating all of them and see how he likes having his stuff taken for a change. And while he manages to get in fine, well, monkeys are distractable, and he manages to find where his mighty rod is being held before the artifact and goes for that instead. So technically mission failed, but hey, at least he’s got his weapon back.

[strange-lace]

I'm gonna toss a Nagi and anyone else you want to have them written with prompt request! Angst 47/37.

The fact that y’all enable this ship means so much to me. Content warning for description of facial injuries but that’s about it. Enjoy!

“You deserve so much better.” / “Lie to me. I don’t care what you say, just lie to me. Make me feel okay again.”

They had a strange relationship, her and Macaque. Originally, they simply found comfort in each other, both being shadows that feel abandoned and left to rot in the darkness. She could understand his pain and that led to her reaching out, welcoming him into her cave and her home so that he could have one. It was a process, one that required patience on her part but she hadn’t survived this long in the world without learning the beauty in waiting and taking things in baby steps. As much as she knew Macaque would hate the comparison, to Nagi it was almost like when Sandy would help feral cats get adjusted to his home.

To Nagi, the back and forth was worth it in the end when she found Macaque curled up in one of her softest pillows and looked genuinely at peace. She made no comment and instead draped a blanket over his form as gently as possible to avoid waking him up.

And like that, Macaque always found excuses to keep coming back much to her joy.

Yet reality decided to give Nagi an unfortunate reminder that not too differently from Sun Wukong, the Six-Eared Macaque had made himself many enemies that could sniff out weakness like blood to pirahnas.

And despite what they thought, she had been ready for them.

“Hey Gigi, you ho-” Macaque froze by the entrance of the cave, shocked at the state of the but more importantly, the state of Nagi. She was surrounded by crumpled bodies in various states of unconsciousness or paralysis, their eyes a hazy mixture of gold and wine red. The snake demon herself was barely standing with numerous injuries littering her body. The most gruesome was a slash across her face which started through her right eyebrow and ended at her left cheek, splitting her face.

Yet that didn’t stop her from immediately greeting him with a gentle smile the moment her mismatched eyes caught sight of him.

“Ah Mac! I apologize the place is such a… mess. Some riffraff had decided to visit me so unexpectedly and I hadn't had the chance to tidy up before you showed up.”

And then Nagi collapsed.

After that, it was all a blur of panic for Macaque as he had his shadows dispose of the unconscious or hypnotized demons, it didn't matter how, as long as they were far away from the cave. Meanwhile Macaque himself frantically worked on patching up Nagi’s wounds, doing his best to remain calm and failing miserably. It made him somewhat relieved that she wasn’t awake, otherwise she’d likely be trying to calm him down when she was the one bleeding out.

By the time Nagi’s eyes sluggishly opened, he had been through the worst of his anxiety and her wounds were bandaged up.

“Hey Mac. Are you okay?”

“I should be asking you that, you idiot. You could have died from your wounds if I hadn’t showed up.” Nagi remained unapologetic to an infuriating degree as she looked at him. Or at least, that’s what he assumed as he had to bandage a majority of her face to keep the slash across it free from infection or further bleeding.

“They wanted to hurt you by hurting me, I simply couldn’t let that happen.”

“But it did! You got hurt because of me and the enemies I’ve made… You deserve better than this. Then me.” A light smack on his cheek by Nagi’s snake tail stopped him and his spiral of self-loathing. Despite the ache of her wounds, she reached up to gently cup his cheeks to make him look her in the eyes.

“Nonsense. I knew what I was getting into. Life is not without its risks Mac and I do not regret taking the risks if it meant getting to… know you.”

He didn’t even know what to say to that.

“Lie to me. I don’t care what you say, just lie to me. Make me feel okay again.”

“I am not lying when I say that I will be okay and I intend on staying by your side. You’re not getting rid of me so easily after all. You’re stuck with me after all the moment you decided to fall asleep in my cave.”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

[skellebonez]

So apparently in JTTW, Baije kept trying to get the monk to say the thing that would activate the torture headband? According to a post I just saw anyway. So I'd like to prompt something where Monkie Kid era Monkey King and Pigsy are arguing, and Monkey King brings that up, because it's kind of /messed up/. Preferably with prompts 25 or 47 because those seem vaguely fluffy and I don't want it to end /sad/ plz?

There are multiple times in the book (though it happened more often early on) where Zhu Bajie took full advantage of how much Tripitaka trusted him and made Wukong’s day miserable because of it, he isn’t the middle brother for nothing! The two have a better relationship as the book goes on, but as an eldest sibling I can tell you... even if you're on good terms later, sometimes you still remember the ways they used to mess with you... also I went overboard. Very overboard. This is really long.

"You have until the count of three to remove your arms from my person, or so help me…!"/ “Tell me what you want me to do."

Things had been going so well... at least as well as could be expected given they had only really seen each other twice after 500 years of Sun Wukong vanishing.

Their first meeting, their initial reunion, wasn't so much a meeting and more "hey I'm here to help MK fight because things are actually really bad and I totally don't already know who two of you are" and then lots of saving the world without the time to talk to or call out his once elder brother before he ran off. Their second meeting was not long after, Wukong coming to check up on MK at the shop and "oh yeah uh I kinda know your boss Bud". Which. Nice job revealing his secret Wukong.

That was a very interesting conversation, explaining to MK that he was indeed The Zhu Bajie from the stories and yes Tang knew and no only Tang knew and no he did not want to talk about why this was kept secret. Then it devolved into MK insisting the two of them needed to hang out together and then questions about Sandy and then how it was so cool that his dad was friends with his mentor. The at first befuddled and then completely shocked expression on Wukong's face as he finally put two and two together made agreeing to MK's insistence so much easier.

Easier than being pogo'd to Flower Fruit Mountain and then being stuck there as MK ran off to do "hero stuff" with Mei, anyway. At first it was awkward, being shown around the mountain by a man who he had spent years of his life with and was clearly trying to not look uncomfortable at the time lost between them.

Then the monkeys attacked. Well. Less attacked, more jumped on Pigsy in sheer excitement. It only took a few seconds for Wukong to cackle and pull them off him with the care of a roughhouseing father. Some of them were just little ones barely new to the world (he didn't miss how much more careful Wukong was with them), but Pigsy recognized a few of the elder ones from the time he had come here to bring Wukong back after the... WBS and Wood Wolf... event.

He also didn't expect any of them to actually remember him or to see Wukong acting so positively parental in comparison to how he acted the last time he was here. It was strange, he knew the Monkey King could be caring and that he had changed on their journey and must have become different over their time apart, but this was a side he had never truely thought he would see from him ever before. And he couldn't help but chuckle a bit at that.

It was like a tension line was finally let slack. They didn't simply slide back into banter, but they were much more relaxed. Wukong pointed out where he had been training MK, showed him to where his house stood (Pigsy wondered if he ever tried to rebuild the palace that had burnt down long before he visited all those years ago, but did not dare to bring that up either). The house was much more modern than he had expected, even having full internet access and TV and a kitchen.

He would never tell anyone about the passionate 1 hour conversation they had about cooking when he realized Wukong picked it up as a hobby. No one will ever know their debate/rant on how to properly prepare dough for steaming and how so many people do it wrong.

At some point they ate a lunch Wukong had prepared, much better than Pigsy expected, and that's probably when it went downhill.

He'd made an offhanded joke about people who use too much seasoning. Wukong joked back, asking if his underseasoned cooking was up to Pigsy's standards. Pigsy had shoved the monkey on old reflex, not hard and not nearly enough to move him, saying if he wanted him to compliment his cooking he could have just asked like a good big brother.

That had started a friendly wrestling match, not unlike ones they had had before and that drew a crowed of monkeys excited to watch. That wrestling match turned more violent before Pigsy had realized it and somehow, some way, they started actually fighting. He yelled about how Wukong had no right to just make MK his sucessor. Wukong yelled about how he chose MK because he was the most qualified and capable person he found. Pigsy shot back that he barely knew him before training him and if he had even bothered to try knowing him he would have known he was Pigsy's kid and he was a shitty mentor. Wukong screamed at that, scaring off most of their audience with the volume, picking Pigsy up off the ground entirely with his arms pinned down.

"You take that back right now, Bajie!" Wukong hissed out in a dangerous tone, one Pigsy didn't give a single damn about heeding in his anger.

"You have until the count of three to remove your arms from my person, or so help me...!" Pigsy fought against Wukong's hold, scrambling for any kind of purchase he could get with his feet dangling off the ground.

"Or what, Bajie? What!? Are you going to find another fillet and tell MK the sutra for it this time!? Are you going to make him not trust me like you did Tripitaka!? ARE YOU!?"

The words made Pigsy stop, but it was Wukong's tone that made him try to turn back to look at him. He'd sounded angry before but now he sounded... genuinely upset. Not angry upset. Sad upset. "I wouldn't do that."

"You did before." Damn it. He really was sad upset...

"Yeah... Yeah, I did." Pigsy admitted with only slight hesitation as he looked at the ground beneath him. "I'm sorry. About how I acted back then. I made everything harder than needed. I made Master hurt you and you didn't deserve it. More often than I'd like to admit..." There was a beat of silence before he decided to take a chace with a question that would probably upset Wukong more. But he had to ask. "How... how painful was it?"

The two of them didn't move for a while, Pigsy just hanging limply until Wukong slowly leaned down and set his feet back on ground. His grip losened slighly, but he didn't let Pigsy go as he rested his forehead against the back of Pigsy's head with a sigh. "Very. Very painful. It... the way it... Bajie, I don't want to-"

"You don't have to," Pigsy interrupted, raising one of his arms now that he could move to grab and squeeze his wrist. "If 'very' is all you want to say, I get it. I'm sorry."

"You already said that."

"And I'll say it again because I mean it." Pigsy pulled away, Wukong’s grip weakened enough for him to without even the smallest fight, and turned around to face him.

He reached up, Wukong giving him an odd confused look as he placed his hands over and around his forehead. Realization dawned quickly and he tensed as Pigsy felt the almost imperceptible scars hidden under his well groomed fur. For the band to have been impactful enough to leave marks at all, let alone after all this time... some didn't feel like cuts or stretches, more like burns almost.

"I'm sorry too," Wukong said suddenly. "For being an ass. I wasn't exactly the greatest travel companion myself at times. And for... for disappearing."

"I already forgave ya for the stuff on the journey long ago," Pigsy said as he pulled his hands back and crossed his arms. "Couldn't sit right with myself if I held a grudge for what you did after the shit I pulled. But I appreciate the apology for up and vanishing. And uh, I'm sorry for calling you a shitty mentor."

"You better be!" Wukong chuckled, standing up straight with an awkward crooked smile. "But, you know, I could stand to be a better teacher. You weren't wrong when I said I don’t know enough about MK."

"I could tell you a few things," Pigsy offered. "Nothing personal, just like how we met and what his job is like. To make up for the. Everything."

"Hmn..." Wukong made a point to rub his chin in thought, clearly about to do something Pigsy wondered if they would both regret. "On one condition."

"Tell me what you want me to do," Pigsy sighed out, fully resigned for whatever the Monkey King was going to ask.

"Cook me dinner."

... that... was not what he expected at all. "That's it?"

"That's it!"

That wasn't near enough to make up for anything in Pigsy's mind... but if that’s what Wukong wanted he supposed that was a start.

[tigerseye46]

Same anon who asked about the Bajie and Wukong were married angle, how about a universe where Pigsy is Bajie in disguise with C9/13/50/90?

This is just pure angst. Enjoy >:D! I’ll expand on this idea one of these days

Brief mentions of death

C9. “You left me!” C13. “No, you don’t have the right to come back to me and pretend that everything is okay again!” C50. “Forgive you? How could I ever forgive you for what you did?” C90. “I know you hate me.”

Pigsy shakes his head as the disguised king throws a pick up line at him. He ignores him and takes something from the cabinet then pours a bit of it into his pot. Wukong’s eyes sparkle as he watches him and Pigsy suppresses his blush.

Ever since Xiaotian had unknowingly reunited them, the king had been sticking around and for what? Pigsy wasn’t sure. It certainly wasn’t for him, he was the reason the king left. After all, why wouldn’t he? Bajie would have gotten tired too if he was forced to deal with a sniveling coward for centuries, forced to deal with someone who only lived to make his life worse. He wasn’t a hero like Wukong was, he wasn’t on the king’s level and still isn’t. Nowadays he’s just a simple noodle shop owner, somewhat different from how he used to be.

He’s nothing special, he never was but Wukong, Wukong is something else. He’s special, he’s everything Bajie is not. The king is brave, loyal, strong, handsome, untouchable, hardworking and so many things while the pig is a coward, grumpy, unreliable, weak, ugly and vulnerable. The only thing he’s got going for him is that his work ethnic has changed, that’s what he believes.

It’s no wonder Wukong left in the first place. No matter how much it hurt.

The king’s reappearance had brought on a wave of emotions, he wanted to punch the king for making him his successor and not telling him he was on that mountain all this time, they checked there when they first heard the word!

There are so many things he wants to do and say to the king, most of them involve curses while others involve pulling Wukong close and pressing a kiss against his lips that would leave them both reeling. He knows that he could never do the latter, Wukong wouldn’t like it if he did.

So he doesn’t, he’ll push that thought into the back of his mind, hoping it goes in a place where it will never be able to get out.

Pigsy narrows his blue orbs at the monkey whose elbow is now on the counter with his head tilted. The pig questions why Wukong wants to act like he could worm his way back into their lives. No way was Wukong getting close ever again.

“Pigsy?” Wukong questions.

“What?”

“You okay? You’ve been standing there for a while.”

“I’m fine,” he replies with gritted teeth. “Why do you care?”

The king raises a brow. “Because you aren’t normally distracted.”

“What?” His phone buzzes with notifications. “Oh, yea.” He fumbles with his phone, pressing random buttons then places it in his pocket and goes back to his soup. Wukong is staring at him in complete admiration. “Why are ya starin’?”

“Just… I admire how hard you work. It takes a lot to manage a restaurant solo.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

“It’s no wonder why people like it so much, although the fact that you’re cute helps,” Wukong compliments with a wink.

Pigsy ignores the small flutter that appears in his stomach at the comment, he makes a ‘tch’ noise with his tongue and responds with “Do you say that to everyone?”

“Only when it’s true.”

True? Ha, totally. Him being cute is obviously a lie. The king doesn’t have to lie to him if he wants something. “Yea. Sure. I am totally cute.”

“You are! You have beautiful blue eyes, they’re like the ocean, you could get lost in them. A gorgeous face and so many other amazing features.” The king props his other elbow up and rests his chin on his hands, giving the pig a charming smile and another wink.

Pigsy stutters because the king seems almost genuine in his statement. A pink color the pig’s cheeks, he swallows roughly and his fists tremble, he knows the king is lying, this is all his big ploy to charm his way back into his family. Why would he ever be important in Wukong’s eyes?

“Shaddup. That’s not true.”

“It is! It’s the truest thing in the world.”

“Ya don’t have to lie to me,” he growls.

The king’s head tilts further. “Why would I be lying?”

Why wouldn’t he be lying? Pigsy is aware of the king’s tells and although there are no tells present, none that the pig remembers anyway, the king’s body language for lying could have changed. He has to be fibbing, he has to.

Pigsy swallows again and replies, “Because I know you hate me.”

“Hate you? Why would I hate you?”

Can’t Wukong just drop the act already? Might as well push him. “Why wouldn’t you hate me? Oh, I don’t know, maybe because I’M ZHU BAJIE! The person you despise the most in this world!” Wukong’s mouth is agape. “And don’t try to lie your way out of this! I know you hate me!”

The monkey’s bottom lip quivers. “You’re not… not a reincarnation?”

“The f-? NO! I’M NOT A REINCARNATION!” A tear falls down Wukong’s cheek and he approaches the pig with his fingers outstretched. Pigsy takes a step back and hisses, “DON’T TOUCH ME!”

Wukong’s ears droop. “I… can’t believe it.”

“Can’t believe what?”

“That… you’re… you’re not a reincarnation. I thought you were.”

“You thought I was a reincarnation? That’s stupid!”

“I thought you all died…”

“Really? Because we thought the same thing happened to you! But no, turns out you just decided to leave us behind, not even a single word then next we hear of you, you’ve given Xiaotian the staff! You left us! You left me,” he yells and uses his thumb to point it at his chest. “And you think you can magically find your way back into our lives. No, you don’t have the right to come back to me and pretend that everythin’ is okay again!”

Wukong gasps. “Bajie, I didn’t- I didn’t mean to-”

“Mean to what? Leave your own family behind? What did you think was goin’ to happen?! You didn’t say a damn word to us about retirin’!”

“I’m sorry. Please forgive me.”

“Forgive you? How could I ever forgive you for what you did? I get it I guess. Some stupid pig demon bothers you for centuries, he’s a coward, weak and his existence only lives to make your life miserable so you find the best excuse to get rid of him!”

Wukong looks taken back by that. “What? You think I left because of you?”

“I know you left because of me,” he snarls, ignoring the way his phone is vibrating.

“That’s not true! You weren’t the reason I decided to leave!”

“YES, I WAS,” he roars, shaking with anger. “I would leave too if I had to deal with someone like me. You were forced to put up with me all because of master and Guanyin. I made you miserable. You were hopin’ to get rid of me after the journey, that you would never see me again but I bothered you anyway, all because I’m an idiot and desperate for attention.”

Wukong’s arms hang to his side, a frown marks his features. “Do… do you really think that little of yourself?”

Pigsy nods as his vision blurs. “Yea because it’s all true. Even now I’m basically the same. I haven’t changed. I get why ya left… I was never goin’ to change.” He clutches his shirt. “You know I always wanted to be on your level, to be recognized by you as your equal but I knew that was never goin’ to be the case. Yet I tried time and time to get you to notice me. Hopin’ one day you would see me and decide…” He grips the fabric tighter, his gaze cast down at the ground. “Decide you love me too…”

There is a weight lifted briefly before it goes back and drops back on him, heavier than ever before, leaving him barely able to breath, when Wukong gasps. “You… You love me?”

“Yea. I’ve loved you for the longest time.”

“Bajie, I…”

He waves his head from side to side. “I already know what you’re goin’ to say. I don’t want to hear it.”

“You have no idea.”

“I do. You’re goin’ to tell me it’s never ever goin’ to happen because you hate me.”

“NO! That’s not it. Will you just listen to me for one second?”

“I don’t want to because I already know what will happen. I’m not havin’ my heart broken again, Wukong.”

“I’m not going to break your heart! Gods, Bajie…”

“Heck. You don’t even have a right to know this in the first place. Considerin’ what you did.” Bajie knows he’s bouncing around but if he can keep the focus off his feelings, keep the rejection away, he’ll do so. “You left all of us, we thought somethin’ happened. You have every right to want to leave because of me but master, Wujing, Ao Lie, they deserved better. If you told me you never wanted to see me again, I would have understood and I would have stayed away while you were with the others.”

“Bajie,” Wukong lets out a small warning to get the pig to let him talk.

Pigsy continues, “But no, you left them too and you made us believe that someone had finally gotten to you, a part of us thought you were dead while the other part hoped you were alive. The day you left is the day my heart split in two, but this isn’t about me. This is about the others. You at least thought of them like family and not me, never me. They should have had so much better. Because I know what ya thought of me and-”

“BAJIE! WILL SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND AND LISTEN TO ME? YOU IDIOT,” Wukong rages, chest heaving up and down from anger. He stops when Pigsy’s jaw clenches and the tears cascade like a waterfall. “Bajie, I-”

“GET OUT,” Pigsy screams and gestures to the door.

“Wh-what?”

“I SAID GET OUT! NOW!”

“I didn’t mean what I said! I’m sorry!”

“I DON’T CARE! OUT!”

The king lets out a breath and bobs his head. “Okay. I’ll leave you alone.” He walks then pauses at the doorway. “I’m… I’m sorry and I… I lo- am always here if you want to talk. I’m sorry.” Wukong sends a small and apologetic smile but it is tired and sad underneath. He leaves and fades from view.

Pigsy lightly slams his head against the counter and weeps.

[fluorescencefuture]

Hwayugi / A Korean Odyssey Episode 5 Review

No one really reads these but I just want to put my hot takes out there

And also I changed the way I’m categorizing it again! Gonna list negatives and positives:

Negatives

The child acting is not the best in this show. Not a lot of special effects in this one, thank god

Apparently, this minor character Alice is supposed to be the White Dragon-Horse. What I'm saying is they shafted the horse again

Wukong’s favorite color would not be green it would be peach get your shit right

I just...do not care for the main leads’ romance. I know the whole thing is that they actually do love each other but pretend it’s just a product of the golden bracelet, but their “real love” scenes legitimately feel forced. His attempts to ask about her interests seemed more like an interrogation than genuine affection.

I swear it's not just me refusing to see it, I’m trying my best, but the chemistry is just not that good, to the point that I keep skimming through their nighttime bench scenes because I know it's just the same old platitudes that mean nothing to me because they really do not work together

Hwayugi reinforces my belief that if you're gonna do a romance involving Wukong he's better off as the subject and not the object. Like, he should be the protagonist focus character instead of the love interest himself.

Or have him being the one being pursued instead of the one pursuing. I feel like he'd be the type to either be completely aware of someone's affection but refuse to address it, or the type to be extremely dense when someone feels deep romantic love for him and realizes it a mite too late

I know romance isn’t Just Like That in K-dramas, because I’ve partially seen What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim and Crash Landing On You and I can still tell they did the “hate-love” dynamic in those shows better. I’m honestly slogging through the romance because:

Positives

The side cast is great and I love them too much. The best scenes are really when everyone’s hanging out with each other. I love that ever since Wukong gained co-ownership everyone started crashing at the mansion more

Mr. Lee noticing the weird ongoings but still sticking around Samjang, what a king

White Bone Demon is adorable. There were two filler dance sequences she had in this episode but she was cute so it doesn’t matter too much. I really hope nothing bad happens to her, she’s so wholesome

Summer Fairy still a queen and General Winter still a king, best advice friends

Wholesome homemaker Wujing I love him and I hope nothing happens to him too. Hot!Bajie grew on me, his attitude is hilarious

Even the OC dog demon secretary got a moment with her shitty sketch of the ghost

Now Demon Bull King was the stand-out this episode. Him waiting for people to praise him for the award he got but nobody knows/cares about it was hilarious.

So Princess Iron Fan here was cursed to live miserably and die painfully every reincarnation, and Demon Bull King can only save her by becoming a deity as fast as possible. Their star-crossed love is infinitely more interesting than the main couple. I wouldn’t want the show to have it as the main focus, but I sure want to see much more of it

That scene of him saving and patching up her reincarnation in the 30s, and she doesn’t know who he is, and he doesn’t try to tell her because he knows she’s going to die...like dude, he loves his wife so much =,(

Maybe I’m face blind but the lead actress is unrecognizable when they put her in less dowdy outfits. Even if she's still too pretty since it's TV, there's a noticeable difference. A lot more believable and less lazy than the American style of “just put her in a ponytail and glasses”

Honestly, I would redraw parts of this or draw the outfits but like, with my designs of the trio. South Korean fashion is really great

Some top dialogue exchanges this episode:

Demon Bull King: Why are you here cooking side dishes? Aren't you supposed to have two meetings later?

Sha Wujing: Yeah, I just wanna feed my boy before I leave

-

Demon Bull King: We share the house, we don't share the stuff in the house. Stop letting the zombie watch the home shopping network, please let your friends apply for a parking sticker before you invite them over, and stop using my lotion

Sun Wukong: Hey congrats on the award you got, pretty cool

Demon Bull King: Here, let me show you how to apply the lotion properly

-

Sun Wukong: I'm kinda depressed today

Demon Bull King: It's low blood sugar, here eat some candy and put on this facial mask before you go to sleep

[vegalocity]

Since you requested peachpig from me. How about peachpig with hugs 29, kisses 15 and 29?

Affection meme

29. hugging while slow dancing

15. soothing kisses

29. hushed conversation in-between kisses

Ngl @tigerseye46 I REALLY like your Dark Peachpig stuff so i hope you don't mind terribly that I’m using that as a basis. Its a diverging 'what if' so that should help lol

--

It was... kind of embarrassing that he hadn't figured it out on his own.

Though to be fair, It wasn't like he had ‘magic truth seeing eyes’ like His part-... His ex-...His hus-... Like Sun Wukong did. And this world was kind of… made to throw him off balance, and with that everything else followed.

Waking up in the middle of the night to a knocking on his door wasn’t...something he was particularly used to of course, But it wasn’t wholly unfamiliar. Of course with the rain pounding down in sheets (Did the weather machine break again? That thing was so damn buggy what was the point in having it?) he couldn’t hear any telltale noises from the other side of the door other than the insistent knocking itself.

He was expecting Xiaotian, maybe Xiaojiao. At Most Strange, Red Son. Mystic Monkey Business, Panic attacks, ‘I couldn’t think of anywhere else to go’ He’d seen a fair amount of the kids on his doorstep before with a fair amount of reasons for their presence. And you know… he figured it would probably be easier to take care of one of the kids right now than to deal with his own emotional garbage anyway.

And then he opened the door and his entire thought process derailed with Sun Wukong standing there, in his true form (the same as his casual form but at least a head shorter than him) fur soaked and heavy from the rainfall, and very visibly choking back tears.

“Wukong…” he’d curse the tremble in his voice but his brain wasn’t quite working right now, so consumed with shock he couldn’t do much else but stand there. Wukong was trembling, from emotion (As surely he’d handled far colder weather) and as the Monkey King took a deep breath as if to steady himself, Pigsy wanted nothing more than to kiss the misery right off of him.

But that wouldn’t be welcome right now, would it?

“Pigsy… Can we talk?” His voice cracked with emotion and Pigsy felt he was helpless to do anything but stand aside and let the Monkey in.

“Are you alright?” what a stupid question. Wukong laughed bitterly in response.

“Not really…” He sniffed and Pigsy wanted again to comfort him, but, again, confronted that he’d probably make it worse. “Look, all of this stuff… it’s been a lot and my head’s been all over the place this whole time but I can’t play the denial game anymore just because I want to be miserable.” Wukong scrubbed at his eyes. “And we need to talk, like WOW do we need to talk. But honestly?” He shrugged, helplessly. “I just miss you.”

And.. this honestly felt like some moment at the end of a cheesy romance movie, and yeah they really did need to talk about everything. But in that moment, now that he knew he could, All Pigsy was interested in, was giving in to the urge and kissing the misery right off of Wukong’s face.

And after that they did talk, extensively, the fact that a fair bit of it involved the two of them clinging to each other and sharing far softer kisses on the couch as the rain continued to pelt against the windows was beside the point. Wukong stayed in his smaller form, Pigsy only asked about it briefly and Wukong only responded that he’d just really prefer to be held over doing the holding right now.

It was… odd at first, Wukong seemed to be under the impression that he needed to make the majority of the apologies, that somehow the whole ‘Being Zhu Baije’ Stuff was more important than Wukong knowing the initial purpouse of their relationship (before Pigsy had realized, before he’d known better) and playing along anyway; but he also seemed to easily accept it when Pigsy began to trade his own apologies.

They both had stuff to apologize for, and he was just glad he was finally given a chance to.

Then for a time they’d simply cuddled, allowed the wounds to heal in eachother’s presence. Pigsy had nodded off again at some point, but by the time he woke up it was still dark out, the rain still pelting the windows. He was alone on the couch but he could hear a familiar rummaging coming from the kitchen. Though it was probably late enough that there was no point in trying to sleep again, he figured he should just start the day properly by now.

It seemed like Wukong was of a similar mind because just as he’d properly sat up and stretched the monkey returned from the kitchen with a few cut up peaches, the bowl sat between the two of them as a simple breakfast.

“What time is it?”

“Early.”

They ate in silence, sweet, blessed, comfortable silence. He hadn’t wanted to fantasize about it from how much he’d been afraid it would never happen again but now that it was back, he found himself positively basking in it. When Wukong leaned to the side just enough to rest his head on Pigsy’s shoulder it was more than he’d expected would ever happen again.

This whole thing must have started earlier than he thought because just as he was starting to get restless the sun was no closer to creeping over the horizon. And it seemed like Wukong was getting restless at about the same time too.

“Okay I’m getting bored of being tired and sad.” He finally stated, standing up and stretching. “Lets do something nice, we haven’t done something nice since any of this started.”

“What do you have in mind?” Wukong thought for a second before grinning at Pigsy, a proper, happy grin that, after so much sad had just transpired, made his gut flip in and his face feel hot. He rushed over to Pigsy’s media setup and fiddled with things there until soft music began to play.

Wukong shook his head twice and with a puff of golden smoke went back to his preferred taller size, most likely so while Pigsy was still sat on the couch he could look suave as he offered a hand and grinned down at him. “Dance with me?”

And you know, maybe if they hadn’t just gotten back together he would deny how well that actually worked, tease him for being a cheesy dork. But as it was he just accepted.

The rain had made Wukong smell a little different, not by much but… different. And he wasn’t necessarily sure if it was a good change or not, but he felt the same, the soft caramel fur had long since dried and was gentle against his skin, he felt his tail coil its way around his hips and had practically encircled Pigsy in his warmth.

It was sad that things had to go over the way they did, but he supposed if they hadn’t then this wouldn’t feel quite as good. The ache had finally given way, Zhu Baije was quieting down in his head now that things were as they were supposed to be again.

It was, for lack of a better word,

a perfect morning.

And then there was a shake, a crack like a splinter of wood a blinding light-

"Dadsy! Are you alright? I'm gonna KILL those two idiots..."

-and it was gone.

--

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