#macaque at the beginning would try to isolate himself and maybe even try and get off the island but wukong’s senses would go off

[quesocheeso]

I don't know if this already 100 question or not, oh well...

My question is, does courtnapping exist in your au ? You know the one that one partner kidnap their mate for marriage thing

Hmmm sounds fun I approve, but it probably won’t appear in the AU by how I have things set up, maybe mentioned off hand🤔🤔🤔

Although technically… based on how Macaque decided to stay in ffm, one could say he was courtnapped from the beginning🤔🤔 Wukong was determined to get him to stay, gave him a home, clothes, food, anything the guy could need…

[nekohime19]

Mini Mac #3 : local lil guy being a menace

Let's go for another Mini Mac chap! This Au is progressivly taking over my life.

Even if Sun Wukong proved to be friendly, Macaque wasn't keen on deepening his relationship with him. Giants were unpredictable, they always seemed to view the world as theirs, full of grandeur, and some even found twisted interest in oddities like himself. Granted, he gave his name away, but he wasn't planning on starting friendly conversations with the King. No. They were worlds apart to begin with, Macaque was satisfied with his home in the walls of the mansion and the silence the water-curtain offered, everything beyond that was something he wasn't interested in. He'd been in the outside world before, he knew what to expect, and it was precisely because he knew that he seeked refuge here. On one of the most isolated islands of the eastern continent.

Macaque would remain in the shadows, living in the walls, and Sun Wukong would soon lose interest, at least that was what he hoped for. Turns out the sage wasn't as fickle as he thought him to be. Sun Wukong kept trying to find him, peering at the holes hidden in dusty corners of the stone mansion with a twinkling eye. He was loud, each of his steps reverberating in the floor itself like some sort of landslide. Macaque always knew he was approaching even before seeing him enter a room, and he didn't need six ears for that. More than once this last week, Macaque found the sage crouched before one of his holes, talking in the void, trying to coax him out. Sometimes he left cut pieces of fruits behind him, and Macaque wasn't petty enough to refuse them.

Food was food, no matter where it came from.

The black-furred monkey sighed as he looked at his reflection dancing on a spoon surface (one of the rare silverware he managed to find). He was getting pudgy these days. Usually, he would leave the mansion every two days to restock his cupboards and find food. The water-curtain cave was vast for a being like him and offered many things he found useful. But because the sage was spoiling him with pre-cut fruits, he was getting lazy, which wasn't good at all.

Cautiousness was a sense he sharpened over the years, he couldn't let his guards down simply because one ridiculous golden-furred fool decided to fatten him. Why even was he fattening him? Perhaps, he planned to eat him? One gust of wind slipped through the walls cracks and flipped his ears in mockery.

“What? It's plausible. Some giants tried to eat me before.” Huffed the black-furred macaque, the wind whispered something in his ear and he recoiled in disgust. “Why do you mean he likes me? I think you're the delusional one here. He didn't even know I existed two weeks ago.” The wind flipped his ears one last time before going away, fickle by nature. Talking to the wind was always unnatural. The wind didn't have a voice, it carried words of others and mingled them to create its own sentences. Macaque wasn't born from the wind (usually only those born from the elements would be this privileged) but, according to the wind itself, he was blessed by it at his birth because the wind took a liking to him.

Sometimes, the black-furred monkey swore the element only took a liking to him because his life was a real-time soap opera and he could gossip with it about every dirty secrets he heard. The wind was particularly fond of drama, always eavesdropping left and right anywhere it went.

Macaque turned around and stopped looking at his reflection. He needed to do something before Sun Wukong became a problem. Maybe he could give him a little fright? After all, the sage used to live in the wilderness before, and he didn't seem one to stay at home. The only reason he was there was because of his sudden interest in Macaque. Maybe scaring him would chase him away.

Fortunately, Macaque was an expert in scaring people.

Scaring the sage was surprisingly very easy. For all his gusto, Sun Wukong was easily taken off guard, he never truly watched his surroundings after all. Macaque used all the tricks in his book. He slammed doors, bit the sage ankles, drew messages on fogged glass, and made the floor squeak in the dead of the night. If at first he did it with his utmost seriousness, he lost himself in the game and let his mischievous nature shine through.

But who could blame him really ? Sun Wukong's reactions were hilariously exaggerated. He still praised himself for the Sun Wukong shaped hole he managed to create while surprising the sage by biting the end of his tail.

For all his fun, he wasn't expecting the sage to catch him off guard with a prank on his own.

It happened at dusk, Macaque wasn't usually an early riser but winter was approaching, and while Flower Fruit Mountain had a kind weather, winter still brought storms in its wake. Macaque hated storms, he often decided to stay inside of the mansion walls through each one, but staying inside meant he couldn't restock as often as he did in summer, and that meant he needed more food. Moreover, the local monkeys often decided to leave the mountain lush wilderness and spend more time in the water-curtain cave in winter, and that meant less food for him, and also more reasons to not wander in the cave.

While the older monkeys seemed nice, the younglings were too rowdy for him.

Macaque found mango pieces scattered in a bright green leaf just outside of one of the holes he used to enter the walls. Nothing truly unusual. The black-furred monkey, not one to turn away free food, approached the leaf and began to eat without looking at his surroundings (after all Sun Wukong wasn't one to rise this early).

He yelped when the sage came out of his hiding place and spooked him with a particularly loud “boo!”. Macaque fur fluffed up in fright and he let his piece fall on the floor. He calmed down once he heard the sage rolling on the floor in cackles.

“Aw, don't pout lil guy. You had it coming.” Laughed the sage as he wiped a tear from his eyes.

“I'm not pouting!” was Macaque's only defense as he straightened his fur, the sage laughed harder. “Whatever, I'm a busy man. I don't have time for this.”

“Oh, you're going somewhere?”

“None of your business.” Grumbled the black-furred monkey as he stuffed the rest of the mango pieces in one of his bags.

“Aw, don't be like that. I can come with you. I know the mountain very well, being it's King and all.” Proposed the sage with a wagging tail.

“No thank you.”

“I tried.” Sighed Sun Wukong, ears and tail dropping in disappointment. “You're coming back though?”

“Why wouldn't I come back? I was here even before you became King.” Huffed Macaque, he summoned a portal with a flick of wrist and stepped in it.

“Okay, good luck then. Don't come home too late! I have a plum for you this evening!”

Macaque snorted, who did this giant think he was acting like some sort of worried husband?

At least a plum sounded nice, his tail wagged at the thought of it.

++ Meme dump bc I have free time and nobody can stop me :

The wind watching Mini Mac life :

Ch1 / Previous / Next

[kristoffs-lullaby]

I know that a lot of people want it to be true but if I'm honest? I really don't want Sun Wukong and Macaque's strained relationship to be a result of a miscommunication. Like I think it'd be a huge cop-out from what they're already building up with Sun Wukong. Do I think he actually killed Macaque? No. But I also don't think that their troubles started there. Macaque speaks as though he's harbored resentment for Wukong for a WHILE and for a variety of reasons that eventually all circle back to the kind of friend that Sun Wukong was. As we've seen in the show up to this point, it feels like they're showing us that-- while Sun Wukong is a good person-- he's also INCREDIBLY messy with the way he handles not only problems but his relationship with people too. Not to mention that they keep bringing up how Wukong managed things in the past (i.e. his legacy being built on him being reckless) and how he really hasn't.. changed. S3 had Mei straight up tell him that he doesn't see how he keeps hurting the people who care about him the most. So no it wouldn't surprise me if he really did end up doing certain things that led Macaque to feel like he was nothing more than this Hero's Shadow.

S1 when we first get introducted to Macaque, during the final fight, Macaque makes the statement: “The real Sun Wukong would’ve leveled this whole mountain to try and stop me! but you’re scared because you think you’ll hurt some kid!?” The emphasis on "some kid" makes more sense when you take in the context that they give us during S2 about their past with one another. Macaque and Sun Wukong were friends who fought alongside each other. And if this is the case, then Macaque wouldn't have made a statement like that unless he knew what lengths Sun Wukong would go to in battle even if sometimes that meant putting the people around him in harm's way (and people he cared about at that). Which is why it baffles him that Sun Wukong holds back during their fight because MK is a kid SWK only just met a few months ago. The SWK HE was friends with wouldn't have cared to put HIM in danger.

Then we get Shadow Play where Macaque's whole deal is that he's been watching as MK begins to leave his friends behind. And a lot of this lesson to MK felt PERSONAL. As if he knew what it felt like to be the friend on the sidelines as he watched the hero take on the burden all on his own, forgetting that he has people behind him. Which is what MK was doing. In the Spider Queen episode, as soon as MK saw that Pigsy didn't open shop he immediately freaked out because Pigsy never forgets to do that and thus he comes to the conclusion that he's missing (which he was correct about)! But during Shadow Play, when he comes across Pigsy's closed shop he doesn't bat an eye. He doesn't realize that hey. Maybe my friends didn't ditch me at the theater because why would they have done that in the first place? And I get that MK was going through a lot at the time and was trying to process it, but I get the feeling that it was kind of the point. Macaque was watching as MK followed in Wukong's footsteps and isolated himself to the point where he took it upon himself to be the hero on his own. He has all this power now and suddenly his friends can't help him with that anymore? He's purposefully keeping things from them and Macaque sees this. Because maybe it's the same thing Wukong would do.

And its clear through Macaque's little Shadow Play that Macaque had some insecurities in their friendship based around playing second fiddle to Wukong. He keeps mentioning how Wukong eventually forgot about him or cast him into his shadow. And yet.. Wukong throws this exact thing in his face on multiple occassions. "Aren't you ever going to get tired of living in my Shadow?" Not to mention the hints we get during S3 that further drive home the fact that he fully believes that Sun Wukong is the type of person to cast someone aside unless they were useful to him. And while that might not have been Sun Wukong's intention with whatever actions he took to get Macaque to ride that train of thought, it is still evident that perhaps he has in the past been careless with his friendships.. as he is with MK's group which led them to where they ended up during the S3 finale.

And the last thing I want to point out is the interaction between MK and Macaque as Mei is being consumed by the Samadhi fire. Macaque tells MK that they need to go and MK retaliates stating that he would never leave Mei when she needs him because she's his best friend. Or something along those lines. And Macaque looks on at him like he can't believe what he's hearing. It's almost like "This isn't something I'm used to because this isn't something I was given as a friend". And it's shocking to see this! Which!! further solidifies in his mind what he said to MK during S2 "You know.. you are just that BIT too much like him [Sun Wukong].. buuut its good to see there's SOME potential" because in his relationships, MK will always look to his friends first and foremost. Monkie kid 101 is doing things together and sticking together.

THIS KINDA DERAILED FROM MY MAIN POINT I THINK A LITTLE BIT BUT. BASICALLY. I hope Macaque's resentment does come from like. Actual conflicts with Sun Wukong and not just a misunderstanding. I think it would add to an arc with SWK where he realizes "You keep doing things the same way you always have and it doesn't work out for you. Something needs to change because you've hurt people in the past and you'll continue to hurt people in the present unless you start approaching things differently". You know? It'd be more impactful if we've got more instances from the past where he's clearly messed up but never knew how to grow from it.

[overdrivels]

Omg, emotionally stunted Hanzo and hesitant hand-holding! Like, after all he's put himself through, his emotions are barely coming back online and his inner monologue is just "hands?!?!" and considerable flailing when in this case Chef grabs his hand "so we don't get separated!"

Hggggggghhhhh I wrote something like this some time ago and I constantly rethink it, hoping that one day I’ll be able to actually include it in the actual story. BUT WAIT. LET ME DO YOU ONE BETTER.

Please have another revisit from a different point of view.

The air, crisp with the snap of an impending winter, chills your lungs as you breath it in. It feels liberating.

The market is as busy as you remember it. Medication and a lengthy preparation time kept you sleeping past the normal time you’d be up and about, searching for the juiciest, freshest, and tastiest of produce. But at 0830, most of them were already snatched up by other more savvy people and chefs who have likely returned back to their kitchens to celebrate their prizes. Now only the more casual crowd remained, a steadily surging crowd.

Agent Hanzo stands right at your elbow, being one of the few agents who were awake when you were plotting to leave and caught you in the act of trying to disconnect yourself from the supplies that are theoretically keeping you healthy. (You’re fine. You can stand and walk with minimal trouble, so a few hours outside shouldn’t be an issue.)

“It is not safe by yourself. I shall accompany you,” he declared like it was a given.

You just didn’t have the energy to fight him. After a few failed attempts to even stand up from your bed, you figured it wouldn’t hurt to have him around in case your body decided to betray you. Athena, bless her, was blissfully complacent in letting you both go once you promised you would take it easy and forced Hanzo to take responsibility for protecting you (and that you’d both return by lunchtime; she threatened to send other agents after you both and you shudder to think of the commotion that would cause).

So far, Hanzo’s been attentive and pleasant company with an occasionally sharp comment that is more witty than barbed and a helpful hanp.

“Is there anything you’d like for lunch or dinner today?”

“Are you so unwell that you are now taking requests?” he asks incredulously, glancing at you briefly with a raised eyebrow before sweeping the crowd with his eyes.

“Very funny, Agent Hanzo. I’m serious.” You pick up a radish and look it over. You can make radish curry with this. Agent Symmetra would probably like that–something closer to home–or maybe radish salad, or garlic roasted radish with feta cheese, or maybe even grate it into a yogurt sauce. “Since you decided to accompany me, it’s the least I could do.” You didn’t have much else you could give to him or do for him anyway.

He scoffs, a tiny smile at the corner of his mouth shows it’s not as condescending or mean as it sounds. “Anything you can make without dropping.”

“That was once! And you dropped way more things than I did.”

“The magnitude is greater,” Hanzo says flippantly, lifting the heavy bags he held so easily back into view. “Whatever you plan on making with this will be payment enough, I’m sure.”

Somehow, you couldn’t help flush a little, unsure if it is meant to be genuine or teasing.

“If you don’t decide soon, I’ll make pepper soup.”

Hanzo just laughs, a light and actually jovial laugh that makes you flush a little brighter. It’s a stupid threat especially against an Overwatch agent, but it’s all you have. But even so, he didn’t have to make fun of you.

“I’m really going to do it, Agent Hanzo.”

He looks at you, a challenging gleam in his eyes that you’ve seen far too many times from other ill-fated agents who think the kitchens are a game. The look makes you burn just beneath your skin.

“Aren’t you supposed to reward me for my services?”

“And I will,” you say with a firm determination. “I promise.”

He has nothing to say to that, but the look on his face speaks for him: we shall see.

For the remainder of your shopping trip, Hanzo remains a quiet but intimidating presence behind you as you continued to pick out your produce. Hanzo still says nothing even after moving through several other booths where you take your time to buy and bargain for large and colorful peppers. He wordlessly takes your bags as you get them, refusing to return them to you even after you kick up a small fuss that quickly exhausts you.

A heavy weight in the middle of your back nearly makes you jump out of your skin and you clench your teeth to hold back the noise of pain that tries to crawl its way out of your throat.

At your ear, Hanzo mutters, “Come.” Without even waiting for an answer, he begins to steer you away. 

“Is someone following us?”

He doesn’t answer, weaving his way in and out of the crowd with you held close to his side. Absentmindedly, you realize he’s quite warm amidst the autumn air. As sharp and callous as Hanzo is, he sure is comfortable. It’s presumptuous, but maybe you could ask him if you could take a nap against him when he has the time. Maybe for half an hour or so. Just once.  

You’re startled out of your thoughts with a quick jostle. “Chef, hurry.”

“Okay, okay.”

“Stay beside me.”

“Do you see something?”

Again, he doesn’t answer.

You can see him scanning the area as though seeking a route. The number of people have thinned considerably, leaving you both exposed. Hanzo keeps you by the walls of what buildings are around, but those are quickly becoming sparse, too. There’s a constant flex in his jaw and it’s clear to see he’s a little agitated.

“Oh!”

You reach for one of his hands–it’s also very warm and very large–and begin to pull with what strength you had even as he tries to snatch it back. You both need to stay together and this is the best way to ensure it even though you’re very sure he can keep up against your injured self.

“Wh—”

“This way.”

You know Gibraltar better. You know its secrets and its truths and exactly how to lose people here. Hanzo, perhaps knowing this, follows obediently after you–he has no choice, you have his hand.

The bags are definitely slowing you both down and a small ache begins to settle around your stomach and sides–the pain medication must be reaching its end, but you push forward through small alleyways that barely fit the both of you until you both made it into the Siege Tunnels where you both took turn after turn into the winding dimness.

“We…we should be safe here,” you huff.

He nods and says nothing, both of you listening, backs pressed against the chilly stone walls, listening for anything beside the echoes of the whispering wind or cries of the many macaques that call these tunnels their stomping ground.

The darkness makes it hard to see anything, but it only makes everything else just so much more apparent especially the proximity between yourself and your bodyguard for a day. You notice you still have his hand in a death grip but you refrain from saying anything: there’s no telling if the danger has passed yet and you didn’t want to risk making any more noise (and he hasn’t tried to pull away again after the first time). It’s embarrassing and downright childish, but you had to admit you felt just a little safer just having him beside you as a solid and warm presence.

You’ve worked alone for so long, it was nice to be in such close proximity with someone who is not looking to you for orders or putting the pressure of work on you. How many years has it been since you were free of expectations? When was the last time you stopped vying for the approval of others?

It must have been a long, long time. All of your actions had you wrung out and stressed, looking over your shoulder at every whisper and imagined gaze. Were the UN after you? Was the Head Chef there? Were your staff watching your every move and judging you? You didn’t ever feel certain even as you rose higher and higher in the world–it felt like each step toward what most people would consider to be an ‘accomplishment’, you became one step closer to uncertainty, trapped by silver walls and isolated from everyone else around you.

This impromptu trip was a good idea even if it made your muscles hurt. Agent Hanzo didn’t judge you, didn’t try to give unnecessary praise or respect, or treat you any lesser. He’s good company with a discerning eye and even better jabs. Maybe next time you decide to sneak out, you’ll tell him first.

Somehow, you realize you’ve closed your eyes as you were thinking. The cool stone at your back and the warmth at your side is intoxicatingly comforting, the shoulder beneath your head is a little hard—  

“Oh! I’m so sor—” You bite your words back, forgetting momentarily you both were on the run, a chill running up and down your skin because what if–.

“It’s fine. I believe we are clear.”

You breathe a sigh of relief. “Great. We can take this tunnel straight back to the Watchpoint. It’s a bit of a walk, but I think it’ll be faster than going back outside.”

You push yourself off the wall with a grunt of effort. After running around so much and taking a break, your muscles refused to cooperate. Hanzo gives you a strong pull with the hand you have gripped tight.  

Again, you flush with the realization. The danger has passed, there’s no reason to keep holding hands.

“Sorry, I didn’t really–I can let go, if you’d like? This must be stopping you from doing your job.”

A contemplative look crosses his face, but it’s difficult to tell in the dark. After a moment’s pause, he gives your hand an experimental squeeze and says, “No. We’ll stay like this. So you cannot get lost in the dark.”

There’s a hint of a wicked smirk in his voice that’s somewhat playful and again, a warmth blooms just underneath your skin; a mix of embarrassment and indignity.

“I can find my way around with my eyes closed!”

“Shall we try? I will not warn you of walls, just so you are aware.” Regardless, he walks with you, close to your side.

“I don’t want Athena to send a team after us, so next time!”

“Next time.” The way he says those words sounds like he’s testing them in his mouth. It’s hard to tell what he’s thinking, but you swear you can hear his smile. “Next time.”