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666herescared · 3 months

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Imaginary Shadow Dad)Ch.11: A Hero of Shadows

—☆—

Notes: Welcome to the start of the stuff taking place within the canon time frame! I just want to really quickly thank you guys for all your comments and likes/kudos! This is so surreal, and I really can’t believe any of it! People like reading what I write, and pay enough attention to point out the details and references! I never expected this sort of thing to actually happen to me, so I just want to say, Thank you all so much!

Now, onto the story:

—☆—

It was finally the day. Redson, mighty heir of the Demon Bull Family, was finally going to free his father! All the trials and tribulations, every single attempt to make something that would let him lift the impossibly heavy staff, it had all led to this!

It was his magnum opus. This was going to be the day he made his family proud! He couldn’t have done it without his uncle’s assistance with earlier tests. Now it was finally time to set his father free.

He pulled the staff from the mountain-

And nothing happened.

“What?! Why isn’t anything happening?” The young prince grit his teeth and hopped off the peak. “Mother, are you sure this is the right mountain?” the arrogant young boy asked his mother, Princess Iron Fan.

She scoffed in offense. “No. Maybe it was that other mountain with a magical staff sealing away my husband!” the former maiden replied sarcastically, then the ground began to shake, causing both to look back toward the mountain, not noticing the young man above them stumbling and barely catching himself with a single hand.

When the captured demonic king emerged, Mk panicked. “Uh oh.. Not good!” he whispered to himself, trying to figure out how to get back on top of the bars, when he once again noticed that bird. “Extra not good!”

“Flesh? Bone? I have returned to the realm of the living.” the large purple bull claimed. Strangely enough, he didn’t seem to have his fur.

“No! Shoo! Go away!” Mk tried to bat the bird away from him, but the bag of noodles in his otherwise free hand kept him from doing so. Pigsy would have his head if he dropped that, not to mention the demonic royals below him.

“Oh! Demon Bull King, how I’ve missed you.” Princess Iron Fan said with a smile on her face.

The demonic king in front of her grinned as he recognised his bride. “Princess Iron Fan? The years have been kind. How did you free me?”

She was about to respond, when her son cut her off - “Actually, it was I, father. I moved the staff! I learned how to harness it! To make it’s power, m-” he paused as he saw his father’s looming form, then whimpered, “-o-our, power.”

“Excellent..” the largest in the room stated in a pleased manner, causing his son to smile.

The fiery haired demon grinned and held his accomplishment aloft for the world to see. “Now, together, we, the Demon Bull Family, will plunge the world into eternal darkness!” he exclaimed cheerfully.

Mk’s eyes widened. Okay! Definitely not safe to just jump down and hope he survives the fall. What could he do?.. His magic flickered as though suggesting itself to him, but he shoved it down. No. that probably wouldn’t even wo- The FREAKING BIRD pecked at his hand until he fell causing enough panic that his tail and ears were briefly made clear for any to see, which caused Wukong to realize what he’d just done.

That was Mihou’s kid. The one he had that shared dream with. A quick double check with his gold vision confirmed it. He knew he looked familiar..

With a scream, some klutzy mortal fell on top of Redson, ruining his moment, and causing him to drop the staff.

Mk groaned and rubbed his temples with one hand, then remembered where he was. Uh oh. Quick Mk! Come up with something! He chuckled nervously and lifted the bag up for them to see. “Uh~ Someone ordered some noodles?” That~ was awful.

Growling, Redson threw the peasant off of himself. “GET OFF OF ME YOU IDIOT!!” He turned to look at the impudent mortal, already yelling about him ruining his moment, when he spotted the young man’s glowing purple eyes and the flickers of uncontrolled magic dancing along his form. It was… fascinating.

Then DBK stepped between them growling much more threateningly and caused the mortal to flinch away. “A little eavesdropper has fallen into our midst? It seems a waste to crush something so insignificant as my first act as ruler of this new world, but, so be it.” He moved to destroy the inconsequential creature, not noticing the shadows churning protectively nearby, when his son stopped him.

“Wait, father!” Redson requested, stopping the king in his tracks.

“What is this?” the grown demon’s threatening voice bellowed.

After clearing his throat and moving his father’s foot out of his way, the fiery haired demon began. “Waste not your energy on this, peasant. Please, allow me to show you how powerful I’ve become in your absence!”

..”As you wish..” the ruler stepped back to give his son a bit more room, then glanced at his wife, who smirked up at him briefly. Both recognized quickly what their son was actually planning, and they were fairly okay with it. After all, it’s not like the mortal even knows how Demon Bull courtship works. He’ll probably just see it as a fight, and that will still let them see the little thief wounded for his foolish actions.

“Maybe I can use this chance to get away-” Mk was muttering to himself as he crawled away from the attractive fire demon, then froze when he began monologuing.

“In some ways, you’re very fortunate, Noodle Boy.” the prince began, stalking towards his fleeing prey and barely noticing how Mk tripped over the staff in his panic.

Mk couldn’t listen to Red’s monologue if he tried. He was too busy keeping his shadows in check. They were flickering around the staff his foot rested on. They were trying to form his ears. He heard the best he had since Shadow Dad left, and yet he also processed none of it. At least not until he heard the demonic prince get offended.

“Ugh- Are you even listening?! I, Redson, will not be DISRESPECTED!” He moved to attack the mortal.

Time seemed to slow down. The Little Monkey’s eyes filled with their glow, and the shadows seemed to grip his shoulders, softly, delicately, yet slightly dipping through the skin. “Ready, Xiao-Xiao?” he heard a near forgotten voice say.

His magic gripped the staff, before he spun back to his feet and grabbed it with his hands, pose impeccable as Redson was knocked off his feet and back into the nearby wall with a deafening thud. “Yes, sifu..” the young adult muttered to the voice before his magic dispersed and he realized what had just happened. Oh shit- “SORRY! MUSCLE MEMORY! Wait- why am I apologizing? You’re evil. Uh- I mean- SORRY I DIDN’T HIT YOU HARDER!” ..Great save, Mk.

“What!? How is an insignificant fool lifting a staff that weighs more than even I can lift?” the Demon Bull King exclaimed in indignant disbelief.

Alright, Monkey Kid. You gotta think fast. You’re surrounded by demons, holding a staff that, by all accounts, you shouldn’t be able to lift, and you just pissed them off by knocking their son into a wall. Seems like it’s time for rule 5. It’s time to get out. “Uh- Yeah- Well. I totally know how to use this so- y-you should really just leave me alone, and let me go.”

Princess Iron Fan struck him with a look that would terrify armies and claimed that, “That staff doesn’t belong to you, little boy.”

Mk seemed a little intimidated but kept up the determination. “Yeah- Well, it doesn’t belong to you either! So just- just let me go!” Xiao Houzi tried to demand, though his nerves were getting the better of him as shadows flickered around his feet, seemingly agitated by something, but slowly settling with it. The Monkey Kid went to talk again when the staff extended toward the ground. What!- “OKAY! I DIDN’T EVEN MOVE THAT TIME!” he exclaimed in surprise before getting thrown off his feet into the elevator shaft.

As Redson got his bearings, he noticed a few of the soft flickers of unstable magic left in the boy’s wake, and he ran over to examine it, running right past his parents in his hurry. With a careful hand, he gathered the flickers, which were soon bubbling with heavy smoke, falling down in waterfalls, as though two forms of magic were both trying to drown the other out. He showed his parents the concerning energy. “I have to talk with my uncle about this Noodle Boy. I have a feeling he’s more important than we think..”

—

Redson placed a small basket of plums on the shrine and lit his incense, then waited for his uncle to appear. After a short moment, he sighed and calmly told the lightly stirring shadows, “I know you’re here. Come out! This is important!” A deep chuckling filled the room as the flames flickered, till the darkness pooled on the wall where a scroll of Liu’er was hung and a head cloaked in shadow peeked out with glowing purple eyes.

“Jeez. What do you have against dramatic entrances?” the monkey demon asked, slipping the rest of the way out yet flinching when his tail crossed from the stasis of the shadows. He plucked one of the plums from the basket and held it to his mouth, pressing it through the darkness cloaking his form.

Redson cringed. “Ugh. Do you have to do that in front of me? You always get juice everywhere,” the snooty prince claimed in annoyance as his uncle finished the plum and threw its pit to the side.

“If you can’t handle a shadow demon eating, I don’t know how you’re supposed to handle a bloodsoaked battlefield, whether you’re winning or not.” Macaque stated, wiping his lips nonchalantly. “Anyways, I’m guessing you didn't just summon me for conversation.”

“You know exactly why I summoned you. You were there, right?.. Y-You were there, right?!” The young demon’s anxiety was coming through. He really wanted his uncle to see when he managed to release his father!

With a soft sigh, the shadow gave his nephew a reassuring pat on the head. “Of course I was there. Very impressive, by the way.” he praised, causing the young prince to light up. Not enough people gave him the sort of attention he deserved. “And, yes - I know why you summoned me. I don’t know where Wukong’s magic came from, but Xiao-Xiao - or as you call him, “the Noodle Boy” - absorbed a bit of power from my lantern, which I let him do, because I raised him for about five years. I was just getting too weak to keep protecting him, so I dropped him somewhere safe, and he kept the magic.”

..”Shit.” Red mumbled to himself. Great. He started crushing on his tangentially sworn cousin. Stupid. “A-and why is your magic fighting Sun Wukong’s? You know that two forms of magic fighting each other in a mortal’s body can make them very sick!”

“It’s no worse than a common cold, and it’s not like I can help him! The magic he absorbed is his now! If I had to guess, I’d say the shadow magic just thinks Wukong’s magic is a danger to him, but it’ll probably mellow out within a week,” the older demon stated firmly. “Oh, and you suck at hiding it when you like someone.”

“W-Well, let’s not jump the gun he-”

“I mean, I married my sworn brother. It’s not like this is anything biological, so it’s not really incest, and if it keeps you from hurting him-”

“SHUT UP! I do not like THE NOODLE BOY! I just met him, and while he’s a, ahem, pleasant sight, and powerful, he clearly has some sort of connection to Sun Wukong. Whether it’s considered incestuous or not, I would have to talk with a matchmaker before even considering beginning courtship!” the prince claimed loudly, crossing his arms and turning away with a blush. “A-Anyways, I'm sure you have certain… requests… for how we conduct our battles with your son?”

Macaque nodded casually, then snapped his fingers to make the lighting a bit more dramatic, looming over the fire demon threateningly as he approached. “You’re right. And I’ll only say this once;” the shadow warrior began, pulling the shadows around the prince to keep him in place and leaning in close. “I don’t care that you’re family. If my son winds up in the hospital, I will make you forget what it’s like to see the sun.”

Red gulped nervously, then nodded rapidly, causing the shadow to look pleased and back off. “Then I have no issues here.” Macaque claimed, turning to leave, but pausing at the altar. “Oh. By the way…” He snapped his fingers, causing the shadows to slip from his face and revealing his dark fur, tan skin, and bright red markings. “It was nice to see you in person again.” he claimed with a wink, once again going to leave. He was stopped in his tracks by Redson, who squatted down to examine the wedding band crushed onto his poor tail, cutting off the blood flow. “Uh, Red? Wh-Why are you staring like that?”

“What? Why do you THINK!?” He was appalled by the gall of his uncle seemingly finding his worry unprompted. “Get back in the shadows right now.”

Macaque scoffed nervously and tried to tug his tail away. “C’mon, kid. It’ll work itself out.” he claimed, despite the wince he tried to hide at the pull of the ring on his flesh.

“Work itself off, maybe. Back in the shadows! I’m cutting it off.” Red demanded anxiously.

“Isn’t that counter intuiti-” Mac started, trying to lighten the mood again, but he was quickly shot down.

“We both know I mean the ring!”

With a deep sigh, Macaque slipped back into the shadows, bringing the plums with to drop off with the twins. “Alright. Sheesh..” It was nice to know the prince worries about him, but this was a little overboard. He was immortal, after all. That stupid king made sure of that.

Redson walked quickly and nervously, a determined look in his eyes nearly dwarfed by the overwhelming worry. He made his way to his garage, quickly grabbing his tools and prompting Macaque to slip his tail out of the shadows, then delicately, carefully, beginning to cut through the beautiful golden band.

It felt almost upsetting. As though cutting off the ring was indicative of him cutting off Wukong, and despite all those years, both monkeys still hadn’t gotten over each other. Oh well. No time to think about that when Red’s already cut through it and released his tail from the dangerously dented ring. He grabbed the gold and pocketed it faster than Red son could process, leaving the boy extremely confused. “What? I’m sentimental!”

“..Alright then. I’m glad you cooperated. Now, I need to go tell my father about the change in plans. Are you going to come with me?” the prince questioned, taking off his welder’s mask and gloves.

After a brief moment of consideration, Macaque stepped out of the shadows. “Sure thing Red. It’ll be nice to see your parents again anyway..” Not to mention a good distraction from the urge to kill Mk’s idol.

—

Mk arrived back at the shop, extremely frazzled as he sprinted through the doors, magic wisps around his glowing eyes in his panic. After tripping over his own feet - he thought that’d stopped happening - he took a moment to sit down and calm himself, but he felt a little sick. His magic was bubbling as though boiling over in a pot, gold light filling the shadows and seeming to agitate it. Where’d he get gold magic from?

“Uh, kid? You okay?” Pigsy asked nervously as he poured another bowl of noodles for his husband, Tang smirking the whole time.

The Little Monkey jerked in place, turning towards them with a little twitch. The purple glow in his eyes seemed to fight a golden one. “Uh- Uh- R-Right! OW-!” He was cut off by a sharp pain in his eyes as the glow settled down, the purple back in place in his irises, though the gold had filled his sclera.

Tang’s smirk fell to a glare as he realized something was hurting his baby, Pigsy reacting similarly though he hadn’t been smiling at any point during this conversation. “WHAT HAPPENED?! Who hurt you? So help me, I will sue for all their money!” the scholar yelled to the universe as he stood from his chair, pissed that his Little Monkey was hurt.

Pigsy shoved past his husband with a mildly annoyed expression at the empty promise he’d heard before, though worry dwarfed the thought of chewing out his husband. “Mk, seriously, are you okay?!”

“I- I think I’m okay, but that’s not important! I found The Monkey King’s Staff!” Mk claimed, displaying the weapon in his hands.

Mei arrived just a moment later and smiled brightly at the sight. “Aww, Mk! You finally re-did the staff? Nice contacts, by the way.”

Contacts? Bah! Whatever. The fate of the world is at stake! “No! I-It’s the real deal!”

Well, Tang could end this argument pretty easy, he just didn’t want to. He did relent rather quickly as he spotted the wisps around his son’s body, seeming more agitated, gold now overpowering the black. “Uh- L-Let me see, but I doubt you’d be able to lift it if it was real,” he offered, approaching and getting a grip on the end of the staff as he tried to look closer. “After all, Monkey King’s Staff is 17,550 pou-ounds!” Mk let go to let his Ba Ba look even closer, but the weight quickly dragged him to the ground. “Okay. Real deal.” Tang wheezed as he pulled his hands from under the heavy weight.

“I’m sorry, Tangy, but you’re not a fair comparison here.” Pigsy claimed, walking over to the staff and trying to lift it, then the room heard a loud squeal and he fell over. “Ow- Oh!- My back!” he groaned, before Tang helped him sit back up and began trying to help soothe the aching.

“You really need to stop straining yourself like that, Pigsy,” the scholar chastised hypocritically.

Mei seemed almost excited by this. “Oo~ Hey, Mk! You wanna move that outside so I can try?” she asked cheerfully.

“Sure thing, Jie Jie!” the Little Monkey replied, lifting the staff one handed with ease. It seemed almost like he was silently boasting.

After placing it in a sufficiently open area, Mei changed from human form, to full dragon form - something Mk had only seen once for his birthday the year before - and she began to try and lift it. After about five minutes, Pigsy and Tang had joined and Mk was just telling Mei she clearly wasn’t able to lift it. About a minute after that, she managed to lift it just barely an inch off the ground, then had to return to human form so she could rest.

Still panting from the exertion even that took, she glanced at Mk, who was now balancing the damn stick on one finger. “Wow. Way to be humble, Mk,” she griped with mild annoyance.

Xiao Houzi threw it up into the air, then caught it, now with his whole hand. “I dunno, Mei. It does make me feel pretty strong to know I can out-lift a dragon,” Mk claimed, posing briefly, then remembering his urgency. “Uh- Now would probably be a good time to go find a way to return this to Monkey King though,”

The dragon had pulled out her phone and had just found a concerning post when he said this. “Yeah, probably. After all, that staff was sealing away DBK,” she stated, showing her phone, which had a few images of Redson and DBK shoving through crowds at the shoe store.

“You paid attention to that?” Mk said in mild confusion.

“You told me that story at least five times. I’m gonna catch some details,” Mei claimed, putting her phone away.

Tang nodded and turned around, already walking towards the truck. Pigsy, Mei, and Mk followed closely behind, having to squeeze behind the adults’ seats. Of course, Xiao Houzi fit fine, though the staff was a little more finicky.

Mei however, was struggling to fit. “How- How are you doing that, Mk? I need to shape-shift to fit in something this small,” she claimed, shifting to a smaller form to prove her point. “I mean, you can't be that small,”

The Little Monkey wasn't sure how he did it, the only answer he had was, “Shadow Dad taught me,”

“Okay, but what's the secret? Like, do you shapeshift? Are you just really flexible? C'mon, Monkey Man, I need to know!” Mei insisted, but only got a shrug this time. It seemed like her little brother really didn't know how to respond, so she sighed and just got comfortable for the rest of the ride.

—

Sandy was resting on his boat sipping a cup of blueberry tea, surrounded by his adorable kitty cats, until Mk slammed through his door in a frenzy. “Sandy! Sandy! Sandy! Sandy Shu Shu! We need to cross the ocean and go to Flower Fruit Mountain right now to return this staff to the Monkey King or the Demon Bull King is gonna destroy the world!” He frantically briefed his Uncle/Therapist.

“Okay!” the spirit replied simply.

..”Nothing fazes you, huh?” the young man mumbled as his family joined him on the boat.

“As long as it helps you feel happy, I don't care if this is real or an overdramatic LARP. Mo! Start the launch sequence!” the big blue man called to his cat, who meowed before hopping over to the front of the boat.

Mei was confused by that, though Mk had already sat down and was tightly gripping the arm rests. “Launch sequence?”

“Yeah, you’re probably gonna wanna hold onto something.” Mk answered vaguely, nails digging into the seat like claws. Luckily, he’d sat in the cats’ chair, so it was already scratched up.

“Uh, Wh-AGH!” Mei was thrown off her feet, colliding with the sofa she’d been standing in front of, which was also where Mk’s dads were sitting.

Pigsy snorted at the odd, scrunched up pose the dragon had landed in, though Tang was too focused on the book he was reading to notice.

—

The Monkey King (and Shadow Dad) stood on the edge of the boat in his butterfly form, watching Mk play with the staff cheerfully. He could spot it with his eyes. He hadn’t meant for it to happen, but the boy seemed to have sprouted a second tail. Something twice as shocking though, was that the magic in his body had already calmed down quite a bit. It wasn’t calm enough for both to mix yet, but it seemed that the boy’s experience with out of control magic was able to keep the opposing magics from fighting for long. Which was a relief to Wukong. It meant he'd be able to keep his eyes from shooting a laser so strong it would blow up the whole city. *Ahem* Oh, look! They arrived. Or- Well.. Sorta. Right. Flaming mountains.

“Wukong..” The king was startled and looked around agitatedly. “Get back to the mountain. We need to TALK.” Yeah. Probably best to not piss off the disembodied voice of a dead lover. Sorry, bud. On your own for this one.

“Welcome to the Flaming Mountains, gang! The volcanic ring surrounds Flower-Fruit Mountain, making it virtually impassable.” Sandy introduced, before pointing at a particular passage. “That path is the only safe way through, and this is as close as the boat can get- MK!”

He interrupted himself when he saw Mk already climbing over the railing to start walking. “What?” the Little Monkey asked, having stopped when suddenly addressed.

“You shouldn’t go alone. Let’s decide who’s gonna be going with you first.” the river spirit insisted, picking Mk off the railing with ease.

The young adult didn’t want to wait, but it wasn’t much use to argue with the big softy. He was a therapist, after all. He knew how to convince you of something. A few minutes too long later, Mk was finally walking through the path with Pigsy and Mei. Sandy and Tang stayed on the boat which… was honestly probably for the best. They weren’t really fighters.

That didn’t stop Pigsy from griping about it though. “Stupid Sandy. Stupid Tang. Stayin’ cozy in their stupid boat. WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS, NOODLE GODS?!” What could (and did) stop him though was a massive geyser of lava.

“Ooh! Careful, Piggy! Sheesh, you’d wonder why Monkey King decided to live here of all places.” Mei commented, before turning to address her brother and freezing at the sight of Princess Iron Fan lurking behind him.

Sadly, he didn’t seem to notice. “Y’know, when Monkey King had to get through the Flaming Mountains, he actually used Princess Iron Fan’s fan to- b-blow… away..” Okay, now he’d noticed.

“Well, well, well! Aren’t you just a Monkey King fanboy?” the powerful woman commented, moving to attack, before her breath hitched and she remembered her promise. Why did Mihou have to be close to this brat? “I’m gonna suggest you hand the staff over now. Someone very close to me wants you alive, and I’d hate to break his heart.”

Sadly for her, the thief was stubborn. “This belongs to the Monkey King. There’s no way I’m letting you take it,” Mk stated firmly, readying his stance with a glare sent her way.

She gave a scoff, but found humor in the foolishness. “Oh, how sweet. The little Noodle Boy is playing at being a her-WOAH!” She barely dodged the sudden attack. The strange boy’s eyes were letting off sparks now. “Did I strike a nerve?” she asked tauntingly.

Mk launched another attack, yet this one was caught, PIF having put on the gauntlet just in time. The Little Monkey still pivoted the staff to try and hit her again, but it wasn’t quite long enough and he didn’t know how to extend it. Instantly, he was launched away, down the path and towards the mountain.

Mei was enraged, and wanted to fight for her friend - her brother - but the eruptions were picking up pace and if they stayed, they would’ve been boiled and fried. Pigsy managed to drag her with him to the boat without either of them getting hurt, but it didn’t feel like a success. They weren’t gonna let DBK win. Not now.

It was time to get payback. All they could do now was hope Mk was fine.

The Little Monkey awoke, covered in white furred young macaques, and had to struggle against them to sit up, though wouldn’t shoo them off as he didn’t want to scare them away. In front of him he saw the Flaming Mountains, and right behind was his destination. Flower Fruit Mountain.

Meanwhile, at the peak, the moon was finally speaking to the sun once more. “M-Mihou.. You’re alive..”

“No thanks to you.” and he was far from pleased.

—☆—

Hey, guys! Sorry about not writing the whole pilot equivalent in one go, but this is getting long and you guys have been waiting long enough. I hope you like it, and as always:

Have fun, and happy scrolling!

Prev- Chapter 10 and Next- (Coming Soon!)

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666herescared · 4 months

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My GODS! This is beautiful! Thank you so much! It's so cool!

You're so talented, and this is exactly how I imagined the scene. It looks absolutely amazing!

YOOOOOOO

The scene is from @666herescared 's Imaginary Shadow Dad, here's the link to the chapter.

Also happy future New Year for everyone, с новым счастьем!

#fanart #shadowdad au #Ohmigosh #Thank you!#This is goddamn amazing

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666herescared · 4 months

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Reminder!

Hey guys! Just reminding you all of some things:

I have an ask blog and it's always open. You can ask literally anything about my AUs.

and secondly, the Cling Peaches AU is not over! It's just a story I only have time to write on occasion and I'm, personally, out of ideas. Give me any non-smut ideas and I'll try to write them, okay?

Anyways, sorry if I got your hopes up about a new chapter, but I just wanna tell you guys that I'm always available!

Have fun, and happy scrolling!

#ClingPeaches AU #LMK au #LMK #yandere wukong #ask me anything #ask blog #shadowdad au

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666herescared · 4 months

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Imaginary Shadow Dad)Ch.10: Acceptance

—☆—

Notes: Just rounding out the PBS era. Mk is finally happy and mentally stable.. But not for long! Mwahahaha!

—☆—

“Con-Graduations, Mk!” Mei joked with a wink as she pulled her little brother into a hug.

He grinned like an idiot and chuckled happily as he hugged her back and spun her around, startling the dragon. Of course, she was used to this, so she calmed down and pulled back to return to her feet and spun him round and round in turn. He yelped but got right into giggling happily moments later. He pulled her closer, off her feet, and sprung himself forward to flip over her head playfully. “Thanks Mei!” he exclaimed teasingly, bending down a little to look down at her while she was on the ground.

She didn’t move. What? Had he hurt her? The Little Monkey crept closer- and got yanked off his feet and pulled to the ground with a scream and laugh. “You Little Monkey! We aren’t supposed to wrestle on the road!” the dragon girl cackled, pulling him closer to her in a sort of pseudo hug to give him noogies. He cackled happily in her arms as she mussed up his hair, kicking his feet with glee.

His dads approached the duo shortly after, Mr.Tang giggling to himself and Pigsy sighing with no real disappointment and tons of amusement. “Yeah. You aren’t supposed to wrestle on the road, so get over here! It’s time for your appointment.” the pig demon claimed, trying to be serious but honestly so happy that the Monkey Kid was finally happy pretty consistently.

“Aww, really? Already?” Mei pouted.

“Yea, Jie Jie. We’re still up for sparring later though, right?” Mk asked, slipping away from the dragon with a goofy smirk.

“You know it, dude! See ya later!” she exclaimed, giving him a good strong hug before calling her bike and zipping off. He waved at her as she drove off, then hopped around playfully as he ran back over to his dads’ truck. His parents snickered as they followed behind, relief and almost aww in their expressions. Their sweet little boy was finally bouncing around like he used to.

With a stupid grin, his Ba Ba called towards him, “Xiao Houzi! Slow down! Pigsy’s falling behind.”

“Wait, what?!” Dadsy asked incredulously, causing his husband to sprint ahead. “Come back here, ya freeloader!” he called as he chased Mr.Tang.

“On second thought, RACE YOU THERE! AGH!” the scholar yelped as he was caught by his husband.

Mk snickered at their interaction, though quickly Pigsy’s competitive side caused him to join the race, though that competitive side was shared by his young boy. The shadow trails at his feet flicked playfully, yet went unnoticed in the boy’s excitement, as he began to parkour down the street, back to the truck. He was far faster than his parents even could be - at least now in their “old” age. He landed in the open doorway of the truck and gave a teasing wink before slipping inside and hunkering down into the gap behind Mr.Tang’s seat.

—

Today's session with his Shu Shu was one of the unique ones. Sandy was taking him fishing on his house boat. Mk used two teabags of plum tea, as he'd been doing for years now, and Sandy just used a single green tea teabag.

They calmly sipped their tea and talked about Mk’s plans for the future, starting with the spirit asking, “So, are you still planning on being a cartoonist?”

The Little Monkey paused for a moment, then shook his head. “No. I think I’ll just help Pigsy out around the shop and draw whatever I feel like. It’s easier that way.” he claimed with a shrug, looking at the water flowing past the ship.

“Hm. Just wondering, what happened to wanting your name to be known?” Sandy questioned patiently, though he already knew the answer.

The young man thought for a moment, wondering when he brought that up, then remembered. “Honestly? I only wanted my name to be known so that Shadow Dad could know what I’ve been up to, but something tells me he doesn’t need my help for that.” He placed a single hand behind his ears- ear to show what he meant.

Sandy figured it out quickly and chuckled merrily at the statement. “Oh! Hehe! You’re probably right.” He sipped his tea, satisfied with the answer.

“Not to mention, Pigsy’s always wanted me to take over once he's gone.” Mk mentioned. He was glad he didn't have to do that too soon though. He might not be a kid anymore, but he wants a while before he has to take on that sort of responsibility.

—

After his session, Mk decided to walk to the park instead of riding in his dads’ truck. After all, it was a nice, bright, sunny day. The shadows were cast in such a way that it looked almost unfairly beautiful. He spotted a few different people on his walk as he scanned the crowd for one specific person. He saw a couple walking with their arms around each other as they ate ice cream with their others, a woman in a business suit walking down the road on the phone and ranting, a few young fox demons playing together and then finally - a small pink light flickered towards him, making sure he noticed it before moving to glide along the ground.

He giggled gleefully at the small request. His Ge Ge had started playing little games like this with him recently. This one was a personal favorite for Mk. He chased after the light, following it’s path even when it went up onto the walls, mostly so he could show off his acrobatics.

The light soon arrived at it’s final location, right in front of Big Brother. He didn’t flee right away for once, which was a startling change for Mk, so he just… froze. Like a deer in headlights.

His Ge Ge seemed to reconsider for a moment, then shook it off and walked forward, giving the Little Monkey a few pats on the head. “Congratulations, Di Di.” It had been so long since he heard his Big Brother’s voice - it only made him freeze up more. The older boy seemed to get a little nervous after that, like he thought Mk didn’t know what he meant. He actually did think that, as exemplified by him then saying, “O-On graduating. Uh- Congratulations on graduating.”

The younger simply nodded, still in shock over his Big Brother stopping the chase and actually touching him and talking to him again.

Ge Ge gave a short nod in response, patting him on the shoulder before walking around him. Right when Mk snapped out of it and turned around, he saw a twisting stream of wind and pink light floating up towards the sky, lotus petals falling down from the quickly fading light. A box falling on his head snapped him out of his thoughts.

He breathed out an airy chuckle. “You really are impossible to understand, Big Brother..” Inside the box was a bunch of items, most being art supplies and sketchbooks, though there was also a small tin inside with yet another lotus design on it and a lotus pastry inside. Honestly? Mk might as well be a collector of the things at this point.

—

Mk arrived at the park a short bit later, unsheathing his purple bo staff the moment he noticed Mei wasn’t rushing to greet him. Looks like today’s a sneak attack day. He focused on the sounds in his surroundings, shadows flickering to life as he heard the odd warbling tone that surrounded his friend when she was in her half dragon form. He shifted his stance and waited…

Clang! The weapons hit against each other as Mk turned to block his sister's attack, then quickly shifted to block her second attack. The duo did tricks to impress each other and both held back just a bit to make sure the fight lasted more than a minute. Their weapons clashed again and again in a flurry of tricks, games, and childlike joy, until eventually they both put down their weapons to do “hand to hand”(Which in this case, means play wrestling like lion cubs!)

After a while more of that, the duo of now very messy young adults sat down at a picnic table to take a break and eat. “So~, now that we’re old enough, what’s your type?” Mei asked jokingly.

Mk snickered softly. “Why do you care? You’re Aroace.”

“Well, I care, because I wanna hook you up! I think it’d be hilarious, and not to mention, it would make you happier!” the girl answered in a cheerful tone.

“Oh- C’mon, Mei! I don’t need a lover to be happy! It would just be a nice little addition to my life, y’know?” The Little Monkey kept avoiding the question.

So Mei decided to pull out the big guns. “We can do this if that helps!” the dragon offered, switching to the shadow language.

Mk had to consider for a moment, but eventually, he caved, fiddling with his necklace as he started thinking, blushing softly as he thought about it. “Well.. I would want a guy who’s like, really confident, and pretty… I’d like him to be real smart too! Maybe good in a spar, and, y’know… able to stand up for himself. Like, super strong and stuff too, you know?” the Monkey Kid listed, cautiously excited as the shadows behind him flicked in the vague form of his tail and he cupped both his cheeks, thinking of some imaginary “perfect guy” just for him.

Mei snickered. “Dude, like, four of those are just, “I want to get stepped on by a hot demon guy-” she teased, but was cut off by her embarrassed brother lightly pushing her back.

“Well, clearly I have a type!” Mk claimed.

“Heck yeah! Don’t let anything change that, Apricot-Boy!” the dragon giggled with a soft smirk.

Things are getting better! And for now, the future's looking bright!

—Purple Bo Staff Era, End!—

Time skip! - Hero is Born - 6:00 A.M.

When the Little Sky awoke, he saw something he didn’t expect - “Good morning, Xiaotian-’”

Mk immediately sat straight up in his bed, disrupting the shadowy hallucination. Oh.. Must’ve just been some sort of lingering bit of his dream or… I dunno - something. “MK! GET DOWN HERE!” Dadsy yelled up to his son, who flinched and covered his ears in response to the volume.

“YUP! COMING!” the younger man yelled down in reply, getting changed as quickly as he could and still adjusting his headband by the time he reached the bottom. “Hey, dads!” he said, walking over to the older couple.

Pigsy was getting things ready for the day, but Mk’s attention was quickly drawn to his Ba Ba instead. Mr. Tang was rereading the legends of the Monkey King again, and was on the final chapter. The story of When the Monkey King Retired! (Aside from the “live” appearances he still does on TV shows, and every single time he shows up at a convention. After all, he might not be a hero anymore, but he’s still a celebrity!)

“OH! I love that one! Can you read it out loud for me?” the Monkey Kid exclaimed, leaning over his Ba Ba’s shoulder excitedly.

Before Tang could respond, his husband responded for him. “No, kid. You got work to do. No slacking!’ Pigsy stated firmly.

“Oh, don’t worry, Pigsy! I’ll be done by the time you’ve finished the orders!” the scholar claimed. “After all, our Little Monkey has been stressed as of late. It’s only fair to let him enjoy his morning!” He jabbed his elbow into Mk’s side lightly, as though to say, “Play along.”

The youngest in the room quickly got his excuses in order. “Oh!- Uh, Yea- Yeah, Dadsy! It’s just one story! Please?~” Xiao Houzi pouted at his demonic parental figure.

Pigsy didn’t even look. “Doin’ puppy dog eyes again?”

Mk’s face immediately fell to a more genuine frown. “Well… yeah..”

“.. I’m gonna regret this, but ONE story. After that, ya’ gotta help me get ready,” the demon relented to the brief whooping of his husband and son.

“I’ll be done before you know it!” Tang claimed. (He was not done before they knew it)

—

After listening to his Ba Ba’s story, (and a brief lecture from Pigsy) Mk was off! Sure, he heard the shadows muttering more than usual, but he managed to shut those up with a quick meditation break.

“Isn’t it fantastic, uncle? My father will finally be freed!” Red claimed, though Macaque was a little busy trying to decide how to approach his kid after this many years.

The Little Monkey had to double check his GPS. That did not look like a house. In fact it looked like a construction sight. After confirming that it was in fact, the right address, he got in the elevator and started going down.

“Uncle?” The shadow sighed and went over to his nephew. His son could wait a couple more hours. This was once in a lifetime. Strange, though. It’s really close.

He soon realized what was going on when his son strolled through the door. A familiar bird perched in the rafters looked oddly pleased. That son of a bit-

Mk quickly realized - upon seeing a gorgeous flaming-haired guy trying to pull a fancy staff out of the ground - what he’d walked in on, and scrambled up into the rafters. There was a strange bird that almost gave him away when an ominous aura filled the space.

Of course. Of course Wukong still recognized what Macaque's homicidal aura felt like. The shadow was furious! He couldn't believe Wukong had actually decided that the kid was the perfect choice of successor.

Mk was unaware of the hidden figure plotting the Monkey King's murder. He was to preoccupied with what was going on below him. MK had never expected to actually see the Ruyi Jingu Bang with his own two eyes.

—Ruyi Jingu Bang Era, Start!—

—☆—

..So…

I’m guessing you guys hate me now.. Don’t worry! You’ll be seeing more of Macaque now!

Have fun and happy scrolling!

(PS: Please don’t murder me!)

Prev- Chapter 9 and Next- Chapter 11

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666herescared · 6 months

Text

Imaginary Shadow Dad)Ch.9: Depression

—☆—

Notes: More hurt/comfort type stuff here. Mostly a string of Mk’s heart breaking and him hiding it, but pretty poorly, then getting told the same lesson over and over again. “Don’t hide when you’re suffering.”

—☆—

A Language Few Know

Mk had done small, odd noises as what Tang and Pigsy assumed was stimming. Unbeknownst to them, it was a language. One only he and the Shadows knew. They found out because Mei asked Mk what his chitters meant and he had a reply that wasn’t ‘Oh, it’s just a stim.’.

“Huh? Oh, I was just lamenting that we ran out of Plum tea.” the Little Monkey said jokingly. “Honestly, sometimes I forget you guys don’t know that language..”

Mei’s eyes lit up. “So, it’s like, a super secret language?” she asked excitedly.

“I guess you could put it like that! My older siblings taught me a long time ago.. D’you wanna learn it?” the younger teen tempted his Jie Jie, who excitably nodded.

“Yeah! Yeah! I wanna learn a secret language!”

“Alright! Let’s start with the basics..”

—

Half a year later, the siblings were having whole conversations through chirps, and no one else knew what they were saying!

Aside from Shadow Dad-

They would talk throughout class in little sounds that the teacher didn’t even know meant anything. Mei created miniature communicators and their conversations almost always sounded like nothing but stimming. (Except for the one or two times one of them got too into the gossip and shouted something but let’s not worry about that-)

The Dragon-Girl visited often and had taken to using the unique greetings from the shadow language when greeting Mk. Such as, “Grand to see you, Fruit Tree!” or “Perfectly Plum-fect, as always!” which was a pun that only really works in the other language. And then… one day… when she visited..

Mk wasn’t in the best state of mind. He was sitting on his bed, staring at his shadow regretfully. Was it something he did? Why couldn’t he have at least gotten a warning? Why was that day so blurry? Sandy said it was probably his brain blocking something traumatic, but he remembered the traumatic part so it couldn’t have been that!.. Unless something even worse had happened that day and his brain was only letting him remember that one part.. Ugh-

“Hello, Little Shadow!”

“Big Brothe- S-Sister. Yeah.. Big Sister.“ Get yourself together, Mk! He- He heard… He heard Savage’s voice overlap with Mei’s.. He was shaking with the effort to avoid crying. Dammit.. He was an idiot to think they were coming back..

“Wait- what? Did you just- I-I’m not even trans- how did you make that-.. Oh, Mk..” Mei was confused, until she remembered what Mk had told her. His big brothers - the monkey ones - were the ones who taught him that language originally.

She approached the boy’s shaking form on the bed and sat beside him, offering a hug, which Mk almost immediately accepted. He cried into her shoulder as she tried to discreetly search on her phone for any information about how monkey demons handled comforting younger members of the troupe. (Fun Fact!: Monkey demons, much like regular monkeys, often lived in troupes which usually included multiple families of monkeys!) Lucky her, there was an entire guide of how to comfort a young monkey demon, specifically meant for adoptive family members of such a child/teen!

It said a lot of interesting things - such as info on things to look for in the young demon’s tail/ear movement and what to do if they don’t trust you with touching them yet - but none of that was useful for the dragon! The boy was raised by monkey demons, but he definitely wasn’t a monkey demon. Tang and Pigsy didn’t have enough blankets for a nest and- Oh! There’s something..

Apparently, monkey demons usually groom their cubs fairly often, and there was even a guide on how to do that. Seemed simple enough, but she read it a few times to make sure. Then she took a deep breath and shifted so Mk’s head was lying in her lap.. It- It really made him look a lot smaller. She hadn’t realized how short he was before. It caused her protective instincts to flare up, but she stamped them back down just as quick. It was better for her to- oh my gosh, that’s adorable.

Mk did a string of chitters that didn’t really mean anything, but it almost sounded like purring. Mei smiled at her little brother, who was clinging to her now. Mmm… She could indulge in her protective urges just this once. After all, she knew the boy was probably used to it. He was raised by monkey demons, then adopted by a pig demon for heck’s sake! Pig demons were well known to be protective of their families to an extent far greater than dragons.

She held him closer with a big hug, then untied his headband and placed it on Mk’s bedside table, causing him to let out a- Wait- what? A monkey-like chirp of slight offense left the boy, which she would’ve expected… if it weren’t for the fact that he’d adamantly denied ever hearing any of his shadow family make those sorts of chirps. He mentioned hearing his Shadow Dad make strange distorted sounds that were somewhat similar, but otherwise, he shouldn’t have made that sound.

She snapped out of it when Mk lied back down and whimpered slightly. Okay… probably just another weird, but awesome thing about her best friend. She shook it off and got back to what she was planning on doing.

Her hands were hesitant at first, but she steadied her breathing and started softly shifting the boy’s hair to pick at the knots. Once she found a rhythm, it became almost calming. The younger teen was silently crying in her lap, but clearly it was helping.

Man.. She was almost jealous that monkeys got to enjoy grooming with their families. Closest thing dragons had was picking at the shedding layer of their childrens’ scales.

——000000——

Check the Dates

This wasn’t possible. The Six-Eared Macaque died centuries ago. Sure, Mk’s Shadow Dad was a dead ringer and the headband he gave the Little Monkey said Liu’er Mihou on the purple side and Sun Wukong on the red side, but it still made no sense because Liu’er Mihou was supposed to be dead.

Eventually, Mr.Tang used his access to a university laboratory as a college professor to check the date Mk’s headband was made. How long ago was it? About five thousand years. How did it last that long? Well, that’s thanks to a simple spell that preserves important things. This was practically confirmation - but it’s impossible! What reason would the Six-Eared Macaque have to take in the Little Monkey? How would he explain this to Mk? Should he even tell him?

He was spinning around in his office chair as he weighed his options. After a few minutes of this, Pigsy entered the room, stretched, and dropped his glamor, which only really revealed a tattoo he was embarrassed about on the back of his neck. Glamors had become simple aspects of fashion in the modern day. Demons would wear them to look younger, or prettier, or sometimes, more human, and humans were able to purchase charms that demons had cast glamors on, so that they could do the same. Even Tang had one of these hidden in his scarf most of the time to smooth out his wrinkles and hide his graying hair.

His husband chuckled and walked over to him, stopping his spinning to give him a kiss. “Hey, Bao Bei. What’cha doin’?” he asked tiredly, glancing around his partner to peek at his work. It wasn’t work though. It was the results of a magic analysis on Mk’s headband, as well as the results for dating the same object. He squinted to read it as Tang turned around. What the-?! “WHAT!? Five-thousand years?!”

Mr.Tang shushed him urgently. After determining the coast was clear, he started whispering, “I haven’t told Mk yet, and I’m not sure we should.”

“What do you mean, Tangy? He’s gonna hear us anyway. There’s a reason the other kids have started callin’ him “Six ear”.”

Mk groaned, lifted his pillow, and put it over his head to cover his ears. Shadow Dad snickered at his son’s misfortune, though he’s still confused by the boy’s dads’ claim. His cub had been given his old nickname. What an odd coincidence..

“Do you have any idea what this could do? He’s gonna panic! I doubt telling him would do any good, and I know it’ll make him panic! So. I need you to lie to him for me. At least until we’re sure what this means, okay?”

Pigsy wanted to protest, but he knew his husband wouldn’t listen to him. So instead, he sighed and said, “Fine. I’ll go talk to him. I don’t even know what you’re expecting me to tell him though,”

Tang immediately calmed down and gave his husband a soft kiss before handing him Mk’s headband. “Good. Now bring this back to him, and if he asks, tell him it’s just five-hundred years old.” the grown human requested, then stood up to go get ready for bed.

“Heh. Lazy ass..” Pigsy muttered lovingly, then walked back up the stairs all the way to his son’s room. He had a feeling of what he’d see in the room when little wisps of black beckoned him from under the door. His son’s ability to control shadows was rather concerning if he was being honest.

Actually, Shadow Dad was doing that to get his attention so he could comfort the youngling, but he’d let the foster parents of his cub keep thinking he was entirely gone for a few more years.

Pigsy walked in and approached his son’s bed, sitting down beside the shadow wielder without a word. He handed his headband back, which Mk simply moved to the bedside table. After a minute or two of both waiting for the other to speak first, the Little Monkey bit the bullet. “So… you don’t have to lie to me. I know Shadow Dad isn’t coming back.” The teenager sounded so defeated.

Frankly, the pig was pissed at this Shadow Dad guy. Mk talked about him as though he was even more amazing than the Monkey King, but that bastard abandoned the most amazing kid ever! No matter what, Pigsy wouldn’t have done that. He would’ve stuck by his son until the very end. Even if he was on the verge of death, he’d at least tell the damned kid! “Yeah, well, I honestly think that’s more of a blessing than a curse..”

“WHAT?!”

‘WHAT?!’

Maybe Shadow Dad was a little quick to think they were so perfect to raise his kid.

“I’m sorry, but I’m gonna need you to run that by me one more time?” Mk said, sass blending with genuine rage in his tone.

“Look, kid. I’m just sayin’ what needs to be said, and that’s the fact that your “Shadow Dad” was a bastard! I’m not gonna pretend I know everything, but I do know that if we were still in the barbaric ages, every demon within ten mountain ranges would be tryin’ to kidnap you. You’re a rare type of kid Mk. And in the past six years that I’ve had the honor of calling you my kid, I’ve realized that that man was either a fool or a coward for abandoning the best kid a creature could ask for.” Pigsy finished his parenting speech. The Monkey Kid was genuinely touched.

Shadow Dad listened to the explanation, slowly losing the spite in his thoughts. Maybe…. Pigsy had a point. He’d abandoned the most wonderful little boy in the world without a word. Something about the thought put a sick flavor in his throat.

Why was it so familiar?

——000000——

Wanna go to the Creepy Old Dojo?

“Wait- What?” Mk asked incredulously.

“There’s like this really creepy old abandoned dojo that I was gonna go check out! It’s supposedly haunted~ so I was gonna check if it actually was, or if it was just some homeless demon squatting there. Who knows? Maybe I’ll find a cool gift for your birthday soon!” Mei explained again with a cheerful grin. Mk tried to figure out if she was joking or not.

“You-.. You spend, like, at least twenty dollars on food every time we hang out, and my birthday present is the thing you find in an abandoned place?” Mei nodded. The Little Monkey grinned. “Oh my gosh! That would be so cool!- If it really is haunted though, are you sure the spirit will be okay with you taking something?” The dragon girl huffed steam out of her mouth as a reminder. Oh yeah. “Wh-Why do you have both fire and water magic again?”

“One of my ancestors thought a western dragon was hot - Pun not intended.” she explained to her Di Di, simply used to it by now.

“Really?” Mk got that starry eyed look again. It always managed to make her feel even cooler. Sometimes she forgot how much that was common knowledge for her was a foreign concept to her little brother!

“Yep!” she said, now sounding more proud of herself. “Answer my question and I’ll tell you the full story~” the boy’s Jie Jie bribed him with a playful smirk.

“Huh?” Mk buffered for a moment, before remembering the original topic of their conversation. “Oh! Right!- Well- No. I’m not risking damage to my fragile human body.”

“..What? What?! Mk, your entire reputation is because you’re the most threatening human in the whole school! You can beat seniors without breaking a sweat! How do you still think you’re just a, “fragile human”? You have magic without even trying for heck’s sake!” The Little Monkey looked like he was just caught lying, which was a shockingly relieving sight for his big sister. After the stress left her form when, for once, Mk wasn’t actually being self-deprecating, she decided to chitter, since this topic seemed sensitive. “What’s this really about, Mini-Apricot?”

It was a little obvious to Shadow Dad. His son had never actually self-deprecated in that way. Xiaotian hadn’t been worried much about strength. - at least after he aba-... dropped him off. - He’d always been a lot more nervous about his morality than his power.

Mk snickered at the older teen’s mistake. The chitters were similar for Mini-Apricot, and Apricot Boy, but one was a term of endearment, and the other was the Shadow-Speech word for Apricot pudding. Crucial mistake to make. He didn’t point it out though, and opted for simply explaining his actual reason. “It’s nothing big, Moonchild. (Which is a nickname for one’s older sibling in Shadow-Speech) I just feel weird about going to the home of a spirit. Whether they’d hurt me for it or not, I don’t want to disrespect them.”

“Ah, fair.” Mei said, non-judgmentally, returning to normal talking instead of the chirps and chitters. “Well, a deal’s a deal.. Wanna hear the hot goss now?” she asked with a teasing smirk.

“Aw, heck yeah!” Mk exclaimed, getting excited again as Mei began explaining the story in great detail… in modern terms, obviously.

——000000——

A Calm Day in the Park

Sandy had scheduled one of his weirder appointments that day. Instead of spending the session in the houseboat, Mk’s therapist decided to take him and the cats to the park for a picnic and outdoor meditation session. The Little Monkey was eating some fried rice his Shu Shu had made for the picnic and sitting on a park bench. Not normally, of course, but he was still on a park bench.

His uncle had taken to telling him stories before each session, while they were having their calm down moments. Today, he was telling the young boy the story of Chang ‘e, since the Mid-Autumn Festival was coming up. He must have heard this story a thousand times by now, but it was always interesting to hear how different people interpreted it. Of course, his Shu Shu was the sort of person to subscribe to the version of the story where Chang ‘e and Hou Yi are both good people and their separation is pure tragedy.

Mk kinda started zoning out after a while. Sandy always let him zone out during these calm moments. He says it’s a sign that it’s working. Then someone tapped his shoulder, he turned to look - no one. Other shoulder. Turned to look - no one. A click of something behind his neck, he rolled over fully to look directly behind him, but only saw a few slow, pink, lotus petals drifting toward the ground.

He calmed down again at that sight. Ah. It was just his big brother. He giggled happily to himself and went to hop over the back of the bench to look for him, then Sandy Shu Shu cleared his throat from the picnic blanket on the other side. Right. He was busy.

“Ah. Sorry, Shu Shu. Big brother was playing with me again.” Mk snickered softly, turning back around. Sandy’s gaze quickly changed from playfully questioning to understanding, then slight mischief.

“I can see that. If you get a chance to talk to him, tell him he has good taste in jewelry!” the therapist said, jokingly.

Jewelry? Had Sandy gotten a better look at Mk’s Ge Ge than he had? The Little Monkey looked around to see if the strange flower boy was still anywhere nearby, then he noticed that there was now something around his neck. He looked down and saw an intricately crafted, small, pink lotus shaped accessory on a thin silver chain. The accessory had a twist function, which opened a hole in the top, revealing an opening somewhat similar to certain scent diffusers he’d seen his therapist use before. Weird.. He loved it! It was definitely high quality, similar to other gifts he’d been given by his Ge Ge before, but he wasn’t quite sure how to use it. After all, it’s not like it came with a user’s manual. “I guess he does!” the Monkey Kid agreed with a chuckle.

One of those, eh? The Lotus Prince must really like his cub if he’s giving him something like that. Normally humans don’t get those unless they’re close to him. After all, as long as he has a flame and some of those petals, Xiao-Xiao can communicate with him at any time. He could tell why Nezha didn’t give instructions on it’s use though. It’s a little early for the kid to start talking to a god.

——000000——

A Stick? THE Stick.

“Happy birthday, Mk!” Mei congratulated her Di Di, handing him a long, thin, box.

Mk buffered for a moment, then remembered. “OH YEAH! IT’S MY BIRTHDAY!” He excitedly tore the wrapping paper off the box, then opened the end and carefully dumped it out onto the picnic table he and his Jie Jie were sitting at, right next to his sketchbook. It was cloudy that day. It was one of those strange moments when there were almost no shadows anywhere.

It made Shadow Dad stick out like a sore thumb.

Out of the box came- c-came… the staff.. The staff Shadow Dad used to train him with.. A purple staff with black grips and golden lines across the surface. Everything was how he remembered it. Even a small nick on the top from one time Xiaotian and the Shadow Twins stumbled into the staff wrack. He was finally big enough for it..

“Mk? Are those bad tears or good tears?” his big sister asked, snapping him out of his nostalgia.

“Mei? Where did you get this?” the Monkey Kid asked, holding the staff closer to him, like it was precious.

“D’you remember that creepy old dojo I was gonna check out?” Mk nodded. “Well, turns out, either it wasn’t haunted, or whoever was there didn’t want me to see them. I found that there though! I remembered you showing me a drawing or two of a similar staff, so I decided to pick it up for you!”

“Mei. This isn’t a similar staff - it’s the same staff! This is my Shadow Dad’s staff! Or- well- One of the staffs he had in his dojo, but close enough!” The younger proclaimed, flabbergasted on how his sister managed to find this in a creepy abandoned do-... dojo.. “That… dojo..” He frantically started flipping through his sketchbook and found one of his doodles of his Shadow Dad’s place. “Did it look like this?!” he exclaimed, shoving his sketchbook in his sister’s face.

She gave it a once over, then, a little confused but not truly comprehending how strange it was, said, “Wow Mk. Got it in one. Have you been there before?”

“Been there?!” Mk exclaimed, incredulously. “Mei, I practically lived there since I was six! Until I got dropped on Mr.Tang and Dadsy’s door - but I’ve been trying not to dwell on that.”

And the dragon put the pieces together. “Wait- That’s your Shadow Dad’s dojo?!” she said, shocked. Mk nodded rapidly. “That’s awesome! Now you have a place to look for clues!”

The Little Monkey deflated a little. Mei’s excitement slipped as she saw his expression change. “N-No. I’m not gonna go looking for him. He left me a while ago, and while I’d love some damn answers… Sandy Shu Shu says it’s bad for my mental health to obsess over getting them. I don’t care about that anymore. Whether he left by choice or not, he left. So what? I have an amazing family already! With or without him.” Mk claimed, somewhat somberly, but it felt like a release. A release of everything that had been building since his Shadow Dad left. There wasn’t a need to look for his approval anymore. He left when Mk was like, eleven! He didn’t even know Mk’s new name! Mk was a different person from Xiao-Xiao and even if Shadow Dad did come back, he wouldn’t know who he is anymore.

“Well, good for you Mk.. Now that that’s out of the way- HYA!” Mei came leaping at him from a nearby tree with her training sword. He’d zoned out so much he hadn’t noticed any of that! And yet-

Thunk! He managed to block it perfectly! He grinned. As always, his sister helped him forget. Forget everything that was wrong. She always knew just how to do it, and in this case, that was by starting a spar!

Shadow Dad just hoped that rant didn’t mean Mk wouldn’t want to see him once he came back..

“Uncle? Mother made dumplings. I put a few on your altar for you.”

“Heh. Thanks, Red.” That should help him forget.

—☆—

There you guys go! I know this chapter was a lot shorter, but there wasn’t as much to get through in each segment. Next chapter is just gonna be to round out this era with a chapter all about acceptance.

Then I’m guessing you all know what happens next. ;)

*Monkey Kid Theme song starts playing* (Have fun and happy scrolling!) Prev- Chapter 8 and Next- Chapter 10

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666herescared · 7 months

Text

Okay. I suppose I can try this..

Mirthfully definition

What do you call the person who runs an arcade prize counter

What flavors go bad with cheese tea

What flavors of cheese tea are bad

What flavors of cheese tea are good

The last three didn't yield any good results, but they were for this thing where I was actually gonna write a scene where Mei told Mk some tips about cheese tea. (I don't know anything about cheese tea aside from what it is)

@six-earedshadowmonkey

I don't have that many mutuals.. the two other ones I do have are already here.

OK MUTUALS NEW TAG GAME

Write your search history if it was just the stuff you look up for writing. Could be fanfic, could be a novel, poetry, whatever! In order from latest to earliest. I’ll start with a slice of mine:

Minecraft potion recipes

Bombay cat characteristics

Kpop songs about rain

Russian naming conventions

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I hope I didn’t forget anyone!

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666herescared · 7 months

Text

Imaginary Shadow Dad)Ch.8: Bargaining

—☆—

Notes: Where to begin… Well, this is going to be the chapter that solidifies Mk’s pre-Monkey King support system with the introduction of Mei. Also, a small lore drop about Wukong at the start, via the means of story time with Mr.Tang!

—☆—

Nightmares Together

Mr.Tang was telling Mk another story again, but the Little Monkey was getting a little too into it. “UGH! I can’t believe Tripitaka did something like that! How can anyone be okay with being that mean to Monkey King?! He’s so cute and cheeky!” Xiao Houzi yelled, flailing around on his bed as he expressed his anger.

Tang was used to his reaction to these parts of the story by now, so he just rolled his eyes before beginning to explain. “Well, I don’t think you understand the entirety of his character. Monkey K-”

Mk bapped his Ba Ba on the nose to shut him up before starting to talk again. “Monkey King is amazing! He protects his people, beats up the bad guys, and he’s a loving and devoted husband!” He ranted in response, though the scholar was still annoyed at the bap.

It would be fine. He’d turn this into a teaching moment. “Well, I suppose that’s my fault. I didn’t tell you the darker parts during our first read through. Here I’ll-” Anddd, cut off again.

“Whatever it is, it’s not changing my mind! Tripitaka was overusing the damned circlet. You can’t deny that!” Mk exclaimed, pointing accusatorialy at his parent.

“I’m not denying that. The book itself agrees with you so-” Mk bapped him again, opening his mouth to speak when Tang gripped his hand, forcefully pinned it to the bed, and gave Mk a pointed glare. “You sit. I teach. You have lost book discussion privileges,” the adult stated firmly as he held his son in place with a finger and a look.

With a dumbfounded look, Mk nodded, a little scared by this outburst. He had never pissed his Ba Ba off that much before.

And it didn’t last because Tang sat back up with a smile a moment later, turning back to his book. “Good. Now…”

Mr.Tang explained a lot of things. He told Mk everything he skipped over when he was younger. He said he didn’t want to harm his developing mind by telling him that stuff. What was that stuff? Well.. Monkey King wasn’t… the best. At least, before the journey.

He had a rather black and white view of right and wrong. Hurt good people, you’re bad and hurt bad people, you’re good. He made his people train when they were far too young. He was… cruel and dangerous… until he met Liu’er - or, well, - until he started trusting Liu’er. When they got together, he was still pretty bad, but Liu’er’s advice made him a much better ruler.

The worst part though, is that he hurt Liu’er a lot. Not always physically, and never on purpose, but the frequency with which he would disappear for years (sometimes hundreds of years) without a word often left Liu'er wondering if his mate was even alive, and the amount of times they mentioned Monkey King making Liu’er wince was staggering. Then… that scene..

“Go home, Liu’er.” the Great Sage commanded, blood drying around the circlet.

"Y-you cannot be serious, my king. You're bleeding, you were screaming a few minutes ago!" the Six-Eared shadow wielder said in disbelief as he held Wujing in place.

"I don't want to hurt you." Wukong said through gritted teeth, a hand raising to pull his staff from his ear.

"No.." Liu’er muttered as he let go of the spirit, turning to glare at the wounded monk. "You! What have you done?! You have broken Wukong's mi-" A loud thud sounded as the Ruyi Jingu Bang stabbed in front of the dark monkey.

"Go. Home." the King demanded, glaring at his lover.

“Not without you,” Liu’er growled, glaring back as he created his own weapon from the shadows around them. Their fight began. As a loud crash echoed through the valley, the walls of the nearby buildings shook from the force of the collision. They bounced away from one another, and the King launched his staff forth, stretching through incredible distances. Liu’er had to think quick, dodging into the shadows to avoid the staff an instant before it crashed into the mountain behind him, leaving a sizable crater in its wake.

Bajie used their fight as an opportunity to go check on their master, who was stubbornly trying to stand, despite his wounded state. “What.. What is he doing?” Sanzang managed to push out, though he stumbled again and had to catch his breath.

“You don’t gotta worry about them master. Wukong’s got it,” Bajie reassured as he shifted the monk’s robes to examine the damage.

“But I-.. I need to- Ugh!” the human tried, but his voice failed him as his disciple started prodding around the damage on his chest.

The pig winced as he felt the breaks in the monk’s ribs, the tissue already bruising over top. “This is gonna hurt.” he lamented, before beginning to bandage the monk’s wounds.

Liu’er appeared behind the King with over a dozen clones draped in darkness. One by one, they struck against him, but in a few swift blows of Wukong’s staff, they were dispatched of, leaving a clear view of the absolutely livid Sage in their wake.

Liu’er struck from above, but his heart wasn't in it and the move was easily countered.

“What are you doing? I'm trying to save you!” the King's lover cried out, as he was kicked back by his partner.

“What am I doing?!? You showed up and began to attack my master!” Wukong yelled, launching his staff toward the shadowed warrior “GO. HOME. I don't want you hurting my brothers, and I do not want it to be my hand that leaves you dead!”

“I'm not going to let your… ‘Master’ harm you! You're bleeding! I haven't seen you bleed since we were cubs!!!” cried the shadow wielder, as he dashed to attack his lover. His attack was dodged, and just as quickly, the Monkey King struck out of blind anger, crushing the ring on Liu’er’s tail hard enough to pin it in place.

The Six-Eared Macaque cried out in pain, and the King winced, though in his mind he was chanting, “He’s immortal too. He’ll be fine.” He went to strike again, but his partner dodged away.

Not realizing that the staff had been extended, he was not prepared for the sudden impact of it hitting his chest and slamming him into the wall. “I…" Macaque gasped, the air having been knocked out of him. Taking as deep a breath as his bruised ribs would allow, he shouted, "I can't let him hurt you anymore!!! He has poisoned your mind with promises of grandeur and now you have forgotten your own dream!” the warrior of darkness yelled, clutching his stomach.

"That dream was lost long ago!'' Wukong snarled in blind fury, dashing down to launch a vicious attack, piercing Liu'er through the eye.

As blood splattered over the Ruyi Jingu Bang, splashing his hands, Wukong returned to his senses - a moment too late - and his lover was knocked out of his sight. He darted toward the point where he had last seen Macaque, but the apologies on his tongue went unused as he failed to find the other man’s body.

“W-.. Wukong. What have you done?” Tripitaka forced out as he stood with worried eyes, having to lean on his gold-banded cudgel to stay up.

The King turned his head, dread in his eye, as he uttered in disbelief, “I think I just killed my husband..” He barely got the words out, before covering his mouth and falling to his knees in horror.

Bajie and Wujing were allowed to hug and attempt to comfort the Sage. However, when their Master stepped forward to do the same, Wukong growled, head snapping around to pin Tang Sanzang with a tearful glare. “So?! Aren’t you gonna punish me?! I killed him! What should it matter if I already regret it?!” he gritted out, though he was shaking. The ruler had never looked so fragile. It shocked the monk.

Behind him, Ao Lie shifted into human form and sprinted forward, stopping to convince Sanzang to sit down. “Maybe you should rest, master? I don’t think Wukong-GeGe wants to see you right now,.” the dragon said, lightly pressing on the human’s shoulder. Once Sanzang had sat down, the White-Horse-Dragon ran forward to comfort his big brother as well, not realizing how confused and distraught the monk had become.

“.. Some say that Monkey King still has nightmares about his lover, and the shadows he disappeared into.” Tang finished the story, looking back at his son.

“That.. That can’t be true. The-.. The Monkey King..” the boy stammered, though he couldn’t finish his statement.

“Hmm.. Maybe you should’ve paid more attention to the story.” the scholar concluded, before walking off, stopping at the door to mutter, “Goodnight, Xiao Houzi.”

And as he drifted off, he slipped into a nightmare… one not entirely his own…

—

Wukong ran across the beach, escaping the mutilated shadow as blood dripped from the open wound on his head. He ran and ran, unable to calm his mind as he ran- then he bumped into Ao Lie.

The dragon turned to look at his brother, the foggy look in his eyes hiding the older from view. "Gege? Gege, is that you?" the bleary-eyed white horse dragon kept looking blindly. He tripped and was caught by the ruler. "Wukong? Wukong! You're here! I knew you'd come!"

The scales on Ao Lie’s arm began foaming. No.. His eyes were a misty white instead of their normal green. Not again. The foam began to slip from his body. I can’t watch him die again! "Don’t go.. No. Don't leave me, little brother." Wukong whimpered, closing his eyes and holding Ao Lie close.

"Didn't act like that when I died." the gruff voice of Zhu Bajie stated, causing Lie to back off. He swung his rake and hit it against the Monkey King's chest.

"I-I didn't even know you were hurt!" he claimed, hand passing through the rake as he tried to hit it away.

"You knew I was." Wujing's voice said as he swung his crescent moon spade back to pull the ocean up into a wave. "You knew I was dying and you didn't even come to see it happen."

"I couldn't handle it! I-I visit your grave! I promise, I care!" Wukong shouted, before feeling a cold chill run down his back.

"Oh, really?" His lover's voice was barely there as his corpse approached, right eye left an empty pit of blood after their battle. "Then what do you have to say about me?" His voice shook the terrain as he grew irritated.

Bajie lifted his rake and hit it against the sage’s side, knocking him toward the stoney-looking Sha Wujing, who lowered his spade to bring the wave crashing down onto his brother, pulling the stone monkey into the deep water. Lie ran forward to help, though fully turned to sea foam as he touched the water.

Sha Wujing split the ocean to make room for Liu’er to approach the weeping Monkey King. "You killed me. That proves how awful you are." the six eared monkey claimed with a snarl on his face, getting close to the king and digging his claws into the wound on his head.

"Quiet." His master's voice pierced through the brothers' heads, and stung the shadow’s ears. He limped more than he ever really had, his opened chest revealing his broken bones and beating heart. He approached his disciple, walking right past the apparitions of the older's guilt. "Wukong. You know this isn't real." the monk said calmly.

"Then.. Why can't I wake up?" Wukong asked, desperate for his master's wisdom, despite it not really being him.

"There's someone else here." the human claimed, pointing a finger at the horizon where a ripple went through the sky as someone hit against the memory membrane.

"How do I get to them?" the king asked with worried eyes.

"You have claws, Wukong. Tear an opening.” the monk reminded and struck his staff against the ground, causing a path to open up for Wukong to follow. The monkey nodded, immediately falling in line with his master’s command.

He ran to the wall of strange goo that made up the false sky of the nightmare and struck, tearing into it and creating an opening that let him see the neighboring nightmare. A familiar shadow was tormenting this one too, but his eyes were first drawn to the victim of the horrors. A young boy - like- at most fourteen, dressed in a kung fu uniform and with his eyes glowing a pale purple. Were his eyes deceiving him or was that Macaque’s headband? No time to think, because the cub was crying and the shadow monster was sending a blow his way.

Without another thought, the king leapt into action, running to defend the boy and- “Shadow Dad, stop!”

Monkey King blocked the hit just in time, but was dumbfounded by the cub’s- he-.. He said cub, didn’t he? -the kid’s words. He looked the boy in the eye and asked frantically, “What did you call him!?” The youngling stared at the king, starstruck. “WHAT DID YOU CALL HIM!?” he repeated himself, more urgently.

“Uh- Sh-Shadow Dad.” Mk repeated, still starstruck. Wow. It didn’t matter that he found out the king wasn’t some unflappable paragon, he was still his idol and he was still awesome. Monkey King looked baffled for a moment, then his eyes glowed for some reason and he gained a look of realization.

He plucked a hair and blew on it, turning it into a knife. “Here! Take this and cut your way into a different memory! This one’s too corrupted to see in.” he instructed, and the youngling listened without question. Meanwhile, the king knocked the fist away and began holding the shadow at bay.

The Little Monkey cut through the sticky black mass on the floor and pulled at the sides until it opened wide enough for someone to slip through. “Monkey King! I found- Eugh!” he started before getting knocked into the opening.

“Very good! I’m so proud- Yada Yada- We gotta go!” Wukong ran through the talking points quickly, before looking around at the memory they’d entered. They were on a rooftop from the looks of it, and the cub was looking over the edge. It seemed like this wasn’t a good memory. “Kid? You okay?” the ruler asked, approaching carefully.

“This-.. This is just a dream. Isn’t it?” Mk asked, crouching down in a way all too familiar to the king. And yet, he copied all the same.

“Well, that’s what I’ve guessed.. Why? You sound disappointed.” the Monkey King replied as sympathetically as he could. It was a little difficult. It was quite a shock that Mihou had a kid.

“No- No- I-It’s not that. It’s just..” The Little Monkey took a deep breath to ready himself to finish his reply. “I’ve always wanted to meet you in person, but I can’t believe my dreams would taunt me like this.”

“Huh.. Who said I’m not the real deal, huh?” The king was far from one to let a fan down, so he pulled the kid closer and gave him a firm noogie. “Ya sure I’m not real?” he said with a playful tone as the cub giggled and repeated, “stop!” in a very non-serious tone. The ruler let him go after a moment and gave him a fond look. “Y’know.. It’s nice to have someone else here. These nightmares.. Gods, they suck.”

The Little monkey chuckled softly. “I hear ya’ there.” he commented, placing a hand behind his ears the same way his Shadow Dad always did. “Sometimes I wonder why they’re like this. If it’s a nightmare… Why does It feel so real?”

“I’m not sure these are normal dreams, kid-” the ruler began, before something loudly crashed behind the duo. Turning around revealed the one image both knew. The shadow form of The Six-Eared Macaque. It started laughing and the king knew he had to think quick. “Kid. I need you to wake up for me.” Wukong began, taking a tight grip of Mk’s shoulders.

“What?-” Mk tried to ask, but the king shook him frantically.

“I’m serious, kid. If you wake up right now, I’ll find whatever is causing these extra real nightmares and destroy it.” the ruler bargained, still shaking the youngling. Mk placed his hands on the grown monkey’s shoulders to stop him so he could talk, but the shadow form behind the king was getting bigger and clearly about to attack, so all the Little Monkey could do was gasp. The king seemed to know what this meant and yanked the kid’s hands away from his shoulders, sending the youngling off balance and plummeting off the roof with a yell. “Wake UP!”

—

“That was cruel, Macaque. Though I guess I could expect that by now.”

“Hehe.. Fine. But I think the real question is…

What did you think of my cub?”

—

Mk bolted up in his bed, shaken to his core. He swung his legs to the floor, and moved to sit down at his desk, flipping open his sketchbook and beginning to draw an image of the nightmare to get it out of his head. The best question he could think of, was the question,

Was that really the Monkey KIng?

——000000——

The Stick - Handmade

Tang was glad that his son had already gotten over finding out that Monkey King wasn’t perfect. In fact, he’d told him his nightmares had gotten better afterwards! I mean- they were still there, but they were better! And the Little Monkey’s admiration for the king had seemingly increased after discovering his hero had struggles too. It seemed to light a new spark in the kid’s mind.

His idol wasn’t perfect. In fact, he was once just like him(Aside from being a magic monkey and not a normal-ish human kid)! The scholar was so happy to see his son finding a way to cope.

Tang was deep in thought as he cut some fruits to bring up to the kid. Lucky him, for once, he didn’t cut his fingers. He carried the slices upstairs and opened Mk’s door, without knocking. “Xiao Houzi- What are you doing?”

The Little Monkey froze and looked at his Ba Ba, somewhat embarrassed. “It’s nothing. Just working on an art project.” he mumbled his explanation, a large stick laid across his lap, freed of its bark and half sanded..

The adult glanced at the large stick- like seriously, it was six feet long, -and how his son was carving it.. Oh my gosh. “Um- Just curious.. What is this art project?” he asked, starting to walk over to sit on the bed beside his kid.

Mk was embarrassed, but worked up the courage to mumble, “I’m making a replica of Monkey King’s staff.”

His Ba Ba gave him a grin in response and put down the plate of cut fruit. “I’ll help.”

——000000——

New Girl

Mei finally convinced her parents to let her go to normal school, and it was going great! She already had a group of friends, had met so many colorful characters, and not gotten in trouble for wearing pants! Honestly, this was going so much better than the prep-school she’d been going to before. Not to mention, this school had a system where if you got straight A’s for a month, you got a little card-thing that you could use to get a day off, and you were even allowed to give them out to your friends!

Her prep school left her knowing stuff meant for two grades above her, so it was super easy for her to get tons of days off. She was walking around with her friends when she noticed some super edgy kid who wore a headband that seemed to have a spell on it to keep his hair up. He also had some black wispy stuff coming off his ears and butt that made it look like he had extra ears and a tail. He seemed super cool, and right away, Mei wanted to be friends with him.

“Hm? Oh. I see you have your eye on Mk,” one of her friends commented, as she watched the kid- apparently called Mk -scare off a senior with a glare, when he was a freshman.

“Yeah! Why was that other kid so scared? He just glared at them,” she asked, excited to hear some tales of badassery.

“Oh? Well, that boy over there has gained a bit of a reputation. He can fight better than any other kid in the school, and he only does it to defend the demon kids!” the same friend from before explained.

“He’s stopped actually hurting people as much though. Rumor has it, he got therapy and it knocked the fight out of him,” the other friend she was walking with remarked as Mk checked on the kid the senior was bullying. “A shame, really. It’s so hot when he does fight.”

Wait- “Oh- D-Did you think I thought he was hot?” Mei questioned in confusion.

“Heh, it’s a little obvious, Mei.”

“No! I just wanna be friends with him because he’s super cool!” the dragon girl exclaimed.

“Oh, please. That kid’s never had any friends. It would take a lot to make him like you.”

“I’m willing to work for it! I’ll come up with the perfect plan to get him to be my friend. I’ll use my free-day slips to get us out of class, take him for a ride on my dragon-cycle and give him the best day of his life! Then I’m sure he’ll be my friend.” She was ready to do anything to make that kid laugh. He seemed so nice, and yet he still looked so, so, sad.

——000000——

Happy Birthday, Di Di

Mk was walking through the park on his birthday. His dads were setting up a little celebration and had him go out to do pretty much whatever he wanted until they were ready. He then spotted the strange boy who kept dropping flowers whenever he left, and immediately ran forward.

The lotus decorated boy smiled at him and started dashing away, seeming to slide effortlessly across the ground while Mk climbed through the trees. The Little Monkey chased his “Big Brother” through the park, across the street and into an alleyway where the older kid ducked behind a corner and disappeared as usual.

Monkey Kid looked around for the boy for a moment, before a tin fell on his head. Luck was on his side, because it landed right in his hands a moment later. He looked at the box and saw a sticky note with a small message on it. “Happy birthday, Di Di. -Love, Big Brother”

Mk chuckled at the sight and took off the note, now able to see the beautiful design on the tin. It seemed to be Nezha themed. Fitting for the flower boy.

The Little Monkey opened the tin and saw a beautiful Lotus pastry inside, and speaking of the inside, it had what looked to be velvet lining it. Wow.. That had to be a super expensive gift.

The younger teen looked around for his Ge Ge to try and thank him, but still couldn’t spot the older boy. He chuckled at the fact. Of course. “I’ll never understand you, Ge Ge.”

“Maybe.” Nezha said to himself. “I know I’ll talk to you in person someday, though. I can’t wait for that Little Brother.”

——000000——

Dragon’s Day

Mk finished his handmade replica of Monkey King’s staff and decided to bring it to school. He wanted to show it off, even though he didn’t have anyone to show it to. He just liked it, and thought it would make him feel stronger.. It was also nice to have a staff again, even if he’d stopped getting into fights as often. The feeling of the wooden bo staff in his hands was one he hadn’t realized he missed.

He noticed No’e getting bullied by Brutus again. Well, he might as well.

“HEY!” he exclaimed, shadows flickering to life around his form as he dashed forward and hit Brutus’ hands away from No’e. “Leave her alone, you bastard,” He shifted his grip on his staff anxiously, not wanting to hurt Brutus too much this time. He didn’t want a repeat of that day he got trapped on the roof.

Brutus… was he always that big?- Wait- obviously not. Why is he so big now? He gave a sickening smirk, scratching the disfigured bump Mk left with that strike. A reminder of his issues. Something he can’t fix by getting better. The Little Monkey shook, but remained in a readied stance. “Hehe.. The little coward finally shows his face again..” the extremely muscular teen taunted. “It’s about time you pay your dues for what you did to me,” he murmured, before looking down at the staff in Mk’s hands. “Tch. You decided to play pretend on today of all days?”

Mk shifts to a more protective stance rather than the offensive one he instinctively took up. "Why don't you," Brutus stepped forward. Mk stepped back. "stop playing," Brutus raised his hand. Mk lifted his staff to block. "the hero?" The bully struck his hand against the stick, then lifted the other to hit against it as well, snapping the intricately crafted, handmade, wooden staff in two.

Mk's mind stops working properly, simply repeating 'Danger! Danger! Danger!' as he moves on instinct, shoving No'e away and punching Brutus in his face, before running away through the halls. He managed to run through the crowd, barely being noticed by the other students, until he wound up cornering himself against the wall, lockers to either side and Brutus rapidly approaching.

He sat down and raised his arms to block, then saw a flash of pink, quickly overpowered by a stream of green. A girl who seemed to be a year older than him had run in and blocked Brutus' strike, growling- hissing- chittering? -some combination of the three, defensively. She had the ears, horns, tail, and scales of a dragon. Actually, looking closer, she was a dragon! “Leave him ALONE!” Wow. Using the royal voice to defend him. He must be special.

Brutus ran away from the dragon girl immediately. At least he could recognize when something’s just too powerful to punch it in the face and hope it goes away. “What a jerk,” the dragon said, putting her glamors back up and looking down at Mk with a small smirk. “Heya! I’m Mei, but my full name is Long Xiaojiao,” she told him, causing him to move from looking starry eyed (I mean, it’s a dragon) to looking confused.

“How the heck do you get Mei from Xiaojiao?” the Little Monkey questioned.

“How do you get Mk from Xiaotia-” She tried to rebut, but stopped when she saw Mk suddenly look threatened. “Uh.. It’s pretty simple. One of my friends when I was younger looked at me and said, “You don’t look like a Xiaojiao.. Mei.” and it kinda just stuck,” Mei decided it was better to not pry into Mk’s reasoning for disliking his real name. I mean, since when was that her right?

The Monkey Kid was startled by the respect and lowered his hackles as he realized she wasn’t trying to hurt him. “Ah.. Mk is short for Monkey Kid. My dads thought it was a good nickname since I acted like a little monkey.. Still do, honestly,” Mk explained, trying to give Mei the same courtesy she showed him.

The dragon reached down to help Mk up, as well as shaking his hand. “Well, it’s nice to meet ya’ Mk. Say, you wanna blow this pop-stand and get some cheese tea?” she asked rather casually.

“Did you hit your head? The first class hasn’t even started,” Mk was confused, until she pulled like, eight free-day slips from her pocket.

“Don’t worry. I got us covered,” She gave him a cat-like smile, clearly mischievous, yet he didn’t know why. Were they counterfeit or something?

“Well, I don’t have money, so I couldn’t pay even if we did go-” he tried again, but she cut him off.

“I’m a dragon, dude! My parents have a full on hoard! I can spare the extra moola,” Honestly, Mk hadn’t expected a dragon to be so approachable.

“I mean.. What’s in it for you?” the Little Monkey asked wearily.

“Ah, smart. Well, my deal is this. I will treat you to the best day of your life, and if I succeed… you have to be my friend,” Mei offered, sounding rather joking. “You can ask for whatever you want if I fail,”

“100,” Mk tested her.

“I’ll probably spend more than that today anyway. Deal!” The dragon snapped up the easy condition before the boy could reconsider. “As of this moment, I vow to you, Mk the Monkey Kid, that I in fact will give you the best day of your life,”

“Heh. We’ll see,”

—

Step 1- Drive dragon-cycle to cheese tea stand

Step 2- Treat Mk to cheese tea

Mei crosses off the first step on her list. Yeah.. She made a vague plan of how she’d handle this special day in hopes it’d increase her chances of making the edgy boy like her. She was waiting in line with Mk and noticed the boy scanning over the menu about fifty times. “Psst. Hey! Have you never been here before?” she whispered loudly to the anxious boy.

He quickly turned his head towards her, anxiety becoming more and more prevalent. “Yes! I-Is there anything I should know? What flavors are actually good once you take the cheese foam into account? Will people look at me weird if I don’t know what to-”

Mei placed one finger over his mouth and her other hand on his shoulder. “Shush. This isn’t some big fancy thing. Just pick whatever looks good and I’ll pay. I will teach you the ways of the cheese tea!” Her jokingly elegant tone made the Little Monkey’s anxiety dissolve in moments, leaving him all giggly!

“Hahaha- Shut up!” Mk said jokingly, lightly nudging Mei as he laughed, to which she did the same.

Before they could get too into the play-fight, the employee called them forward, as they were holding up the line. Mk ordered a mango cheese tea and Mei ordered a cranberry-dragon fruit combination with extra boba and extra cheese foam.

Step 2- Complete!

Step 3- Walk to AGA (Anti-Gravity Arcade)

Mei crossed off another step as Mk marveled in the flavor of the cheese tea. The duo walked normally for a small while, until the younger brought up his training. “I learned everything I know about fighting from my Shadow Dad,” Mk claimed, expecting the usual questions and denial of his original caretaker’s existence, and yet Mei responded with a simple,

“That sounds awesome! Having a Sifu who you actually connect with enough to straight up call him dad without a single worry? That’s life goals, dude,” The dragon didn’t seem to know what he meant, but she didn’t deny his past, and that was heartwarming for the younger teen. “The only one I’ve been trained by is too stiff to really do anything with. He doesn’t even seem to enjoy teaching. He’s just gunnin’ for that paycheck,” the older said spitefully. She clearly didn’t enjoy her lessons.

“Sounds rough… but, now that I know you’ve been trained before..” Mk trailed off, taking Mei’s cheese tea and placing it down alongside his own on a bench. The dragon girl was confused, until Mk pounced at her and knocked her off balance.

The duo play-wrestled in a way that was familiar for the younger teen. In fact, if he wasn’t too busy playing around, he may have started crying from the nostalgia of it all. Eventually, they had to stop their little play fight and get back on their way.

“So… Where are we going?” Mk decided to finally ask, and Mei seemed startled by the question.

“I~ forgot to tell you, didn’t I?” The Little Monkey nodded. “Ah. Well, we’re going to the AGA!” Mei said with a flourish. Mk had no clue what she meant. “Wait- You’ve never been there either?!” she exclaimed incredulously, getting in her friend’s face.

“No? Was I supposed to?” Mk’s more anxious and friendly personality was slowly coming out from behind the clouds again. The anger had passed, and he was returning to a better mental state. He was thankful for that.

Mei didn’t realize that though, ‘cause she was just ranting about how the AGA was the best arcade in the city, and all the games it had. She seemed to be slotting herself right into the hole his big brothers left when they had to go, and quite comfortably at that. “Dude, you okay?”

Huh?- Oh. Oh, he was crying. Oh gosh.. “Uh- Yeah! I’m fine.. You just… really remind me of someone I knew a long time ago. Sheesh- How long ago was that?” Mk tried to do the math on how long it’d been since he last saw the Shadow Twins.

Meanwhile, Mei was just wondering who she reminded him of. Clouds were moving in as they reached the doorstep of the AGA. ‘Guess Great Great Great thousand times Great uncle is getting angry,’ she thought to herself as she took another sip of her cheese tea.

Step 3- Complete!

Step 4- Forget that time exists while playing at the AGA

Mei crossed off the second to last point of her plan, before dragging Mk inside of the massive arcade that he was briefly starstruck by. While he looked out at the arcade, lights blaring, speakers booming, and people floating around, Mei purchased ten hours of gametime for herself and set up Mk with an account, which she then purchased ten hours for as well.

“C’mon Mk! Let’s go!” the dragon girl exclaimed, dragging the unprepared monkey into the Anti-Gravity section of the arcade. The two played for hours- well, Mei bought hours of playtime, so that’s not a surprise- but the two played for hours with only a short break for lunch. They got so lost in their games that Mk forgot to tell his dads where he was until Pigsy called in a panic while they were playing Monkey Mech.

Mei took the chance to dunk on Mk while he was on the phone until she overheard him saying, “Yeah. No I- I-I’ll start heading home now! Trust me, you’re gonna wanna meet her. She’s a dragon! Oop- Sorry. Gotta go!”

The dragon girl pouted at that. She still had a full hour of gametime left. “Aww~ Can’t we keep playing a little longer?” she pleaded to which he chuckled.

“No, Jie Jie. I’ve worried my dads enough,” Mk barely noticed what he’d called her..

But she definitely noticed it. “AWW! You called me Jie Jie! That’s so~ sweet! Just met you, and you’re already considering me family!”

“That happens a lot more than you’d think,” Mk muttered.

“Oh, fine. Just let me spend some of my tickets first,” Mei gave in shockingly easily, and landed back on the ground in front of the prize counter. She noticed Mk eyeing one of the toys they were handing out and decided to get it for him. “The massive Monkey King plush please!” she requested as she slammed her massive stack of tickets on the counter. “Oh! And the Dragon-Horse plush next to it!”

The technician was stunned by the fact that she actually had enough tickets for that. After they handed over the plushies, she cast a spell to keep them dry in the rain long enough to get to Mk’s place, meanwhile Mk was staring out at the rain and having flashbacks to the day he was dropped on his dads’ door. It was raining then too. He was breathing in and out anxiously until Mei shoved the massive Monkey King plush into his hands. “No way,” he mumbled as the dragon girl stepped out the door.

“What’re you waiting for Mk? I cast a spell to keep them dry till we get to your place!” she told him excitedly, before looking closer at the younger teen’s small frame. The plushie was the same size as him! Before she could think too much about how cute that was, she noticed the anxiety in his stance and the wisps of unstable magic that moved along his shivering form. “Do you… not like the rain?” He nodded. “Why?”

“Uh- B-Bad memories..” Mk mumbled.

Well, Mei couldn’t have that! She was a dragon for heck’s sake! Rain was kinda a big thing for them. “Okay then..” She walked over to him and crouched down with an exaggerated bow, dropping her glamors as she moved. “Then hop aboard, my dear little brother. They don’t call me the Dragon-Horse-Girl for nothin’!” she claimed and Mk processed the statement for a moment.

“Wait- Are you a descendant of Ao Lie?!”

..”Did I forget to say that?-”

“YES!!” The Little Monkey exclaimed, almost giddy. “Okay, okay! Uh- How do I… know I won’t fall off?” He sounded a bit more cautious now.

“Hmm.. Ooh! I know!” She barely took half a second before whistling for her dragon-cycle. It arrived with a sidecar attached, which she then placed Mk’s new plush into and buckled it in, even putting a helmet on it! She just put her own plush into the bike’s “saddle bag”. “There! Now just hold on tight. I’ll make sure you don’t fall,” she said, walking back over and crouching down for him to get on a moment later.

He was cautious, of course, but Mei hadn’t given him any reasons not to trust her - Not to mention, he really wanted to get home soon - so he hopped aboard. Once she was sure he was safe, she felt through the air with one foot for her first step. One foot on the first raindrop, she stepped forward with the other, slowly moving upwards as she got into a rhythm. Then, high above the city, she started moving faster, the dragon-cycle following on the ground- Mostly.

She occasionally slid on the rain to get lower and stepped up to get higher, Mk panicking slightly but continuously getting overpowered by laughter and the excitability brought on by the adrenaline rush and disbelief that he’s riding on the back of a human-formed dragon who is running on rain.

After a while, she spotted his place and slid down the raindrops to reach the ground, right in front of Pigsy’s Noodles. “WOO! That was EPIC! Now c’mon! Let’s hangout!- uh- assuming I was successful in making you wanna be my friend?”

“Heh! Yeah. You were successful, alright! That was amazing!” he exclaimed, hopping into the air and kicking his legs out with excitement.

“YES!” Mei shared in his excitement, punching the air happily. They grabbed their plushies from the dragon-cycle and entered Pigsy’s shop, chatting gleefully about Monkey Mech.

Tang looked at them in disbelief and commented, “I honestly thought you were gay, Mk.”

The Little Monkey looked over, somewhat confused and said, “Oh, yeah I am, actually. Me and Mei are just friends.” Mk explained.

He has a friend!

“And I’m Aroace.” Mei continued.

“Oh, really? I didn’t know that.” the younger teen mumbled. Pigsy was absolutely dumbfounded that his son had befriended a goddamn dragon, while Mr.Tang was vibrating at the fact that he now had access to a member of the dragon family to ask about their history. “C’mon, Jie Jie!” Mk said excitedly as he ran over to the stairs.

AND they were already sworn siblings?!

Shadow Dad chuckled mirthfully as Mei followed, just as excited.

"Uncle? We need you." his nephew's familiar voice requested through the earpiece.

The grown demon rolled his eyes and took one last cheerful look at his son before beginning to head down with a resigned, "Alright! I'm coming. I'm coming.."

—☆—

Nightmare Tripitaka:

And there ya go! Sorry it took me a while again, but again there was a lot to get through. Also, I got a little obsessed with TMNT and started doin’ some stuff with that. You might see what I’m doing in a while (I mean, like multiple months, maybe a year. You’ll see why when I show you that.) Anyways, without further ado,

Have fun, and happy scrolling!

Prev- Chapter 7 and Next- Chapter 9

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666herescared · 7 months

Text

Shadow Dad AU: Masterpost

Alright. Just to make this easier for people to get into, I'm gonna (try to) make a masterpost for the ShadowDad AU.

~~~~~

Main Story:

Ch.1: The Nights are the Hardest

Ch.2: Training so Young

Ch.3: Shadow of a Child

Ch.4: Need a Little Help?

Ch.5: Grief Stricken

Ch.6: Denial

Ch.7: Anger

Ch.8: Bargaining

Ch.9: Depression

Ch.10: Acceptance

Ch.11: A Hero of Shadows

~~~~~

I hope this makes the AU more accessible to new potential fans! (Ps: I'll edit each post to include Next and Previous links!) (Pss: This is now also on AO3! Click here to see that version, as it is slightly different thanks to the wider variety of fonts)

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666herescared · 8 months

Text

Imaginary Shadow Dad)Ch.7: Anger

—☆—

Notes: Get ready to see the badass good boy! Trust me though, there is an explanation for his behavior. He’s just a bit more agro than canon Mk, but he’s still wholesome and a little bean!:3 Also, uncle Sandy>:3 He has a therapy degree.

—☆—

Territorial Monkey

Pigsy was startled when the school called in the middle of his work day, forcing him to take an early lunch and see what was wrong. Tang was probably in the middle of a lecture at the time, so it wasn’t likely that he’d be able to join in. He arrived at the school and made his way to the principal’s office, seeing his son squatting on the chair with his feet supporting his ass. “Ah. You must be Xiaotian’s father. Please, take a seat.” The man at the desk said, a stern gaze causing the pig to stiffen up.

He sat down and glanced at Mk, who was still refusing to sit like a person. “What did you do?!” Pigsy whispered, making the little monkey flinch and avoid his glare.

“Nothing he didn’t deserve.” The boy whispered back, keeping his glare on the carpet.

The principal cleared his throat, stopping the demon from questioning his kid further. “Xiaotian bit another kid today.” The condescending man glared at both of them, seemingly blaming Pigsy just as much as Mk. “According to him, the kid tried to steal his lunchbox and, “got too close”.”

“What?!” The pig exclaimed in shock, before hearing the low growl his son gave to the authority figure.

“What else was I meant to do!?” The kid suddenly looked like he was about to leap across the table and attack the principal. Knowing his son, he was perfectly capable of it too. “I gave him one bite of it last year, and now he won’t stop pestering me about it when I say, “no”!” Mk slammed his hand against the chair and made the whole thing creak- Wait, what the fuck?!

How was his son that damn strong?! Was tree climbing really that good for the upper body? “You should have approached a teacher about it. Not. Bit him.” The imposing male stated.

“And have it get ignored? Fat chance! I’d rather get in trouble than lose my meal!” The kid stated like he’d tried that before, even though Pigsy definitely hadn’t heard about that.

The pig patted Mk’s back, not missing the way his son tensed and gripped the chair. He decided it was best to give the kid his desired space. “Okay.. Well, what punishment is the other kid getting?” The demon asked, not expecting the reply of,

“None. I believe your son inflicted enough pain on the poor boy already.”

Pigsy laughed in disbelief. “You’re kidding. The kid tried to steal from my kid! He should at least get a talking to!” He exclaimed, not understanding the principal’s logic. The little monkey’s eyes lit up, clearly cheered up by the defense. He already understood what he did wrong. He was more angry about the kid not getting punished in the first place.

Sadly, that light was snuffed out when the principal sighed as though they were being unreasonable. “I understand that, but the boy came into the nurse’s office crying over how much it hurt. It was already bruised when he came in. I think your son has punished the boy already.” The man stated with a glare that shut down Pigsy’s argument. “I understand that your son is… a special case. So, instead of detention, he'll just have to write a three page essay about the dangers of bites."

"WHAT?!" Mk yelled, interrupting. "Do you think I don't already know that?! I get that I did bad, but three whole pages?! I'd never find enough info!" The boy seemed angry, though he was still refusing to sit like a human.

Pigsy held up a hand and successfully shut his son up, which was a surprise to him. He wasn't expecting that to work. When he took a glance, his son was now looking down at the floor in annoyed silence, clearly not having wanted to shut up. Makes you wonder. "Well.. I’ll ask Tang to help him write it. I'm sorry for his behavior." He apologized with a small bow in respect, seeing his son tip his head slightly, clearly following his lead but not wanting to show too much respect.

The principal dismissed them, allowing the pig to head back to the shop and the child to stomp back to his class, not noticing the wisps of shadow coming off of him or the intensity of the glowing from his eyes.

——000000——

Protective Monkey

Mk was stuck up a tree. No joke. That's literally where he was. The cub had started getting into fights a lot, mostly to defend demon kids from getting bullied. But eventually, he was threatened with suspension. He still protected those in his corner from his perch, but he started relying more on his apparent infamy rather than his physical strength. It was useless when he got in his most recent one. The Little Monkey was walking through the hall, when he heard a slam and turned to see a young yellow lizard demon named Miki being held firm against her locker.

Long story short, the fight got bad, he got caught, and to escape the consequences of his actions, he fled up his tree. He was just lucky that the doors to the school yard were open. He started out only a little higher than normal, but then the principal came out, calling for him to get down. He climbed higher and sat in the middle branches, where he was well out of the principal’s reach. The vice principal walked up beside his superior, gazing up at the errant child and asked, “Should I call his parents?”

A dead branch was kicked from Mk’s seat in the tree and hit the man on the head. He rubbed his head as he confirmed, “Yes. He might listen to them.”

The Little Monkey was truly living up to his name as he sat there so high up the tree that falling was sure to break at least one bone. Just how he liked it. As monkey as the Monkey Kid could get. He knew that if he had his shadow tail then, it would have been flicking in a pleased manner.

He could almost feel the ghost of it there. He felt incomplete without it. Six ears that weren’t there flicked as he watched the ground. He honestly acted so similar to Monkey King that it was scary. Protective, and yet he flees the moment consequences arrive. It was a part of his training, after all. It wasn’t his fault. “Get in, get out fast.”

“MK!” Pigsy yelled from the ground. Oh- shit, how long had he been there? He looked down and saw both his dads, Dadsy just standing there and staring up at him in shock, while Tang paced in a panic. “Get out of the tree!”

“NO!” The Little Monkey climbed the rest of the way up the tree. “You aren’t my dad!”

The jolt of pain on Pigsy’s face was quickly covered. This had started happening around the time that the fights did. Mk would yell, “You aren’t my dad!” or something similar and then call him Dadsy in the next damned sentence. “Get out of the God damned tree! I am your dad!”

“You’re not my dad!” the Little Monkey yelled, hanging from a branch like a fucking koala.

“I am your dad, get down from the f- heckin’ tree!” The nervous parental demon barely caught himself almost cussing. Not till Mk’s sixteen.

“I’m up a tree and you’re not!” the boy yelled down, pointing at his dads with one hand as the other held him steady.

“XIAO HOUZI!” Tang shouted fearfully, finally standing still for a moment. “COME DOWN! YOU’RE GOING TO HURT YOURSELF!”

The Little Monkey reflexively covered his ears, falling down to the next branch and having to catch himself.

Suddenly very aware of his own mortality, the boy started crying. "Dadsy! Help! I'm scared!"

“Great. He’s not being stubborn now, but how are we gonna get him down!” the pig exclaimed in confusion, hearing everyone else watching the spectacle start hemming and hawing. He sighed deeply, but it was abruptly cut off by some weirdly serious kid shoving past. He looked to be about twelve years of age, with long, straight black hair - like a waterfall made of ink. He wore a pink and very floral-themed hoodie adorned in lotuses with sweatpants to match.

“Calm yourself! I’ll get you down!” The strange boy’s voice was so deep, you could be forgiven for thinking he was an adult. Maybe he was just a really short sixteen year old… with a really developed voice?

The boy leapt up the tree with an ease that defied gravity, and offered the panicked boy his arms. Mk was wary. He didn’t know this kid and wasn’t entirely certain he could trust him, but the older kid’s aura was so calming that he felt like maybe he could… and he really did want to get down from the tree now, so he allowed himself to relax and climb into his arms.

The older boy made his way back down the branches much slower than he had ascended, and allowed Tang to pull his son into his arms once they were on the ground. He immediately turned to leave. As he was walking past, however, he gripped Pigsy’s shoulder and whispered, “You have no clue just who you have under your roof. Don’t expect favors too often. Keep him safe.”

“Obviously! He’s my-” The demon turned around to look at the odd boy, but he had vanished just as suddenly as he had appeared. He looked around for any sign of the cryptic teen, but there was nary a clue aside from a few pink petals in the grass. “What the-..Hm..” That scent..

The pig let out an OOF as he was unexpectedly hugged by his husband from behind, followed by a second, somewhat less abrupt hug from his son.

“I’m sorry..” Mk whispered, with tears in his eyes.

Pigsy put all thought of their fortuitous benefactor out of his mind. His kid was crying. He could think about mysterious flower boys later. For now, he had to focus on bringing his son home, and making a jujube cake for his family.

——000000——

Snap

It wasn't Mk’s fault! Just getting that out there. He was just protecting a demon kid. He was sitting on his branch when he heard a kid scream. "B-Brutus, please!" No'e yelled, getting the attention of the school yard guardian. Brutus - He was a well-known bully who was infamous for being a lot meaner than the other playground antagonists.

A glance toward the confrontation showed that Brutus's reputation was fair. After all, he was holding No'e's antlers so tight that moving could cause them to snap. "You asked for this, tattletale! You shouldn't have told on me when you have these convenient hand-holds."

The monkey-boy could see where this was going, so he wasted no time in snapping off a branch from his perch, leaping down and storming over to, without a word, hit Brutus's stomach hard enough with his makeshift club to make him let go of the reindeer girl's antlers. The boy grunted in pain as he was thrown off, hitting the ground with enough force that he lost his vision for a moment.

No'e knew to run after a rescue at this point, so she fled before the fight broke out, with only a muttered, "Thank you." to MK.

He didn't hear her, though. He was already having a bad day, and he didn't need Brutus making it worse. Without a thought in his mind, he lifted the stick above his head, and swung it with all his might at the boy on the ground, snapping the stick with the impact, and definitely bruising the kid. He came to his senses when he heard the boy's scream.

MK realized his mistake a moment too late as he stared down at Brutus. The boy may have been cruel, but Mk knew he had hurt him more than he should have. Not good. Terror welled up inside of him. This was bad. He’d really done it now! He was suspended the last time he got in a fight, and he didn't want his dads to get angry again.

He ran.

He didn’t notice the people yelling after him or how shadowy wisps clung to him, nor how his eyes glowed brighter in the moment. He was too panicked, trying to find a- there! On the wall of the school, he spotted a few pipes and someone on the roof would be far out of reach.

Without thinking, he raced to the piping and scaled it to reach the roof, nearly slipping a few times in his panic. As he reached the top, and scurried over to the middle, he let out a sigh of relief. Finally, somewhere he wouldn’t be seen. The shadows calmed and his eyes faded to their normal shade. He was just gonna… stay there… for a bit.

-Hour 1-

It was already concerning when the school called that day, but it was so much worse when he found out what they were calling about. They couldn’t find Mk! Pigsy closed the shop without hesitation so he could go and help look for his son. Tang showed up at the school gates in a cab moments after him. It seemed like he’d gotten a similar call.

“Pigsy! Oh thank goodness! I was worried I’d have to search on my own!” The scholar whined fearfully and hugged Pigsy’s arm, clearly nervous for their son.

The demon chuckled anxiously and petted his husband’s hair to comfort him. “Yeah. Same here, Tangy.” the pig agreed, beginning to walk toward the building, his husband in tow. And so, the search began! Sadly, questioning Brutus was no help. He was kinda non-functioning and still on the ground at the time, due to blunt force trauma, so he saw nothing. Oops.

-Hour 2-

They were getting scared. The principal had called the cops to help search, and Tang had had three breakdowns already. Pigsy’s efforts in promising free noodles when they got home were no longer helping.

Mk watched the chaos unfolding through a small hole in the short brick wall that surrounded the school roof. He was starting to think he’d bitten off more than he could chew. He was so nervous. How would he calm his dads? He didn’t want them to panic! But he also didn’t wanna get arrested! Well… they’d have to give up eventually.

Right?

-Hour 3-

Around the start of the 3rd hour, Mk took to throwing pebbles down to his parents. He was missing, but he was trying. He wanted his parents to know he was okay, but he didn’t want to alert the cops to his location. He peeked over the edge of the roof to line up his next shot- but, “Hey- wait, isn’t that the weird kid who saved me from the tree?”

The boy was looking directly at him! He looked so baffled by the Little Monkey’s antics, but he actually saw him! “Wait- wha? Where did he go?!” The teen had vanished again. A single petal landed on the Monkey Kid’s nose. It made him sneeze. Was it just his imagination?

-Hour 4-

All the other kids had gone home. Their parents had been called to pick them up when it was discovered he was missing. The cops and other adults were still searching - still calling for him - but Mk didn’t dare come down. It didn’t matter that he was getting cold. And bored.

..Mostly bored.

He tensed and ducked back out of sight when two officers who had been circling the school for the hundredth time stopped at the bottom of the pipes. Mk held his breath and listened.

“You don’t think he climbed up there, do ya?”

You could hear a pin drop in the tense silence, but MK breathed a sigh of relief when the second officer said, “Nah. No kid could climb that.”

And back to being bored…

-Hour 5-

Why weren’t the cops leaving?! Even Dadsy and Mr.Tang had gone home by now, probably in hopes that he was already there. It was getting dark now! The Little Monkey lamented his continued trapped state as he sat up there on the pebble covered roof. He missed his dads..

He placed a soft hand on his shadow, and he teared up.

-Hour 6-

Mk started softly singing to himself as he watched the ground below. The officers were finally getting ready to leave. He remembered when dad used to sing that. He remembered falling asleep to that song every night. “Shine~ Shine~ Shadow light. A star I needed to keep alive. So shine~ Shine~ Shadow light. I want to see you shine so bright.”

And finally, finally, the cops left. Mk climbed down expertly, although stiff from sitting on the roof for so long, but he made it to the bottom and started his long walk home. He kept humming the old lullaby to himself as he made his way back to his house. As the shop came into view, a feeling of dread came over him. He was scared of how his dads would react, so rather than use the door, he climbed up the fire escape and slipped into his room through his window. He ever-so quietly started getting ready for bed, but froze when he heard footsteps on the stairs.

Mk was still as a statue as they stomped up to his room. “No- No, of course I know that. Look, I feel like he’s been through enough just going missing. No! I don’t care if you think he-” Pigsy threw open the door, phone to his ear and went stock-still in an instant.They found themselves stuck in a silent stare off, but it was Pigsy who broke the stillness. “I-I found him,” he gasped, dropping the phone in his shock.

Tang bolted up the stairs, seemingly having heard what Pigsy’d said. He hit the wall in his rush and shouted, “WHERE IS MY BABY?!!” Pigsy had forgotten completely about whoever he was calling, running forward alongside Tang and causing Mk to throw his hands up as the scholar yelled, “Xiao Houzi!” and gave him a huge hug. The pig caught them both up in a bone-popping hug an instant later.

“H-hi dads..” Mk waved one semi-pinned hand, before working his arms free and wrapping them around his parents’ shoulders. He felt so much guilt rush over him at once that he started crying as he held his dads close. “I-I’m sorry..”

“It’s alright, Mk.” Pigsy muttered, trying to regain composure, but still crying a lot.

Tang wasn’t even trying. He was sobbing into his son’s shirt and nuzzling him. “Xiao Houzi! Oh, my sweet Little Monkey. I thought we’d lost you!”

“I’m sorry,” Mk apologized softly again, voice barely audible, as tears traced thin lines down his cheeks.

“H-Hey. It’s okay,” Pigsy consoled his son. “How about I make us some jujube cake? We can go calm down, and talk about this. Alright?” the demon asked, wiping his eyes and stepping back.

The exhausted family agreed and made their way downstairs for some comfort food and a long conversation.

There was one thing the adults knew by the end of that day. Mk needed some therapy.

——000000——

Old Friend

It was a Saturday, which meant Mk and Tang were both home and Pigsy was cooking. They were presently sitting at the counter, waiting for lunch to be done. Tang was recapping the chapters about the kingdom of women to Mk. Meanwhile, he was glancing through therapist listings on his phone. Once the food was done and placed in front of the two, Mr.Tang decided it was a good place to stop and focused on eating, alongside his son.

After a little bit, Pigsy noticed that someone familiar had slipped in among the customers. Someone they still had to talk about. The mysterious flower boy was sitting in one of the booths! He was eating and staring directly at Mk.

Pigsy tapped his husband on the shoulder and muttered, “That flower kid is here again.”

Tang barely glanced up from his noodles, but the Little Monkey slammed his hands on the counter and turned to look.

The moment he noticed him, the older boy booked it out the door. “YOU!” the younger yelled, chasing the boy out the door. He was lucky that traffic was slow. “You aren’t disappearing this time, big brother!” Mk said, almost playfully as he chased the older boy. Look, this happened a lot, okay? It was getting annoying that he stared at him all the time, but never actually talked to him.

Eyes following MK out the door, Pigsy clarified, “I meant that we should talk about him.” to Tang.

“What about him?” Tang asked through a mouthful of noodles.

“Isn’t it weird that he keeps showin’ up and staring at Mk? And the first time he showed up, he said some ominous thing about us, “Not knowing who we have under our roof.” Like, who does he think the kid is?! Mk is Mk! He has no right to tell us-”

The demon’s husband shushed him. “Pigsy, sweetheart, you’re rambling. I don’t know what your point is.” the scholar stated.

“S-Sorry, Tangy. It’s just… What’s going on with our son? How are we supposed to help him? He acts like a monkey, has shadow magic, and definitely needs therapy. I don’t know what to-!” The pig had calmed down significantly, but his anxiety was starting to ramp up again, so Tang grabbed his hand and ran his thumb across his husband’s knuckles.

“It’ll be alright, Bao Bei*. How about you take a break and help me look for a therapist for our Little Monkey?” he asked in a comforting tone, emphasizing his breaths.

Pigsy breathed in and out alongside the scholar subconsciously, relaxing fairly quickly. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” He agreed, grabbing his ‘Out to Lunch’ sign from beneath the counter and walking around to sit with his lover. Tang patted his back and slurped up the rest of his noodles fairly quickly, just waiting for their son to get back, before heading downstairs to relax.

They didn’t have to wait too long, because the Little Monkey walked through the door moments later, glaring at a petal in his hand.

Mk crushed the petal angrily, and dashed for the stairs, but was halted suddenly by Tang. Luckily, he was able to stop the instinctive punch he nearly threw. That was happening too much- “Yeah, dad?” Mk asked, opening his fist and shaking the tension out. The shadow trails flickered away as he lost the aggression.

“We’re heading downstairs for a break, Xiao Houzi. We’re gonna keep looking for a therapist while we’re down there. Do you want to come?” Mr.Tang asked, eyeing the tense hand in a way that did not go unnoticed.

After a moment of thought, Xiaoti- Mk said, “No. I’m gonna go watch ‘Monkey Cop’ again.” while pointing up the stairs. His human dad nodded, letting his hand go, and waving at him cautiously as he ran to his room.

Once he knew his son was up the stairs, Tang stopped waving and put both hands into his sleeves, walking down to the couple’s home. His husband lingered in the noodle shop for a moment, looking at their son’s room worriedly, before catching up to his lover.

The two of them walked over to the couch, Tang flopping down and Pigsy settling down next to him a moment later. Both let out long sighs, before taking out their phones and continuing to browse therapist listings. Thirty minutes later, Tang found something interesting. “Pigsy. Look at this one. Home practicing therapist, with all necessary licensing, and multiple degrees. High rated, cheap, and he practices with unconventional methods, such as tea, sharing his therapy cats, meditating and yoga.”

“Sounds like a bunch of mystic mumbo jumbo,” the demon replied, uninterested at first. That is, until his lover shoved his phone in his face.

“Look at who the therapist is, though,” the scholar insisted. Pigsy pushed his husband’s phone back, confused at the disbelief in his tone, until he saw who it was. Holy shit. “Sandy?!”

Five minutes later, Pigsy was making a call to a very old friend. The phone rang for a moment, then that voice he hadn't heard in years came through from the other side. "Thank you for calling "Cats and Tea Therapy"! How may I help you?"

Emotions stirred in the demon's gut as he heard his old friend’s voice sounding so calm. "H-Hey, Sandy." His voice quivered, nervous about getting back in contact with the river spirit.

There was a pause. Shock was clear in Sandy's voice as he asked, "Pigsy?" After a moment without denial, a joyful tone slipped into his next sentence. "It’s been too long, old friend!"

The pig smiled as he heard his friend’s voice. "Heya, Sandy! Heard you're doing therapy now. How did that happen?"

"Oh! I started therapy a while back, and it helped so much, I thought why not share the love. Why do you ask? Are you thinking about getting therapy yourself?" the river spirit asked.

Pigsy cringed slightly at the thought. "Nah. Already did that a while ago. It's for my son," the older clarified, before getting an odd look from Tang. He then realized how that sounded. "Me and Tangy took him in about two years ago. Almost three now. He's turning thirteen in a few weeks."

"Oh! Okay. I was worried something happened between you two, and you found someone new," the river spirit chuckled with relief.

Pigsy laughed along with him. "Nah. We actually got married, like, five years ago."

"WHAT?!" Excitement and shock mixed in Sandy's voice. "Why didn't you invite me?"

The pig chuckled at his friend's question. "You know that's not part of pig demon courting, Sandy."

"But Tangy's a human! I just wanted to be there. Maybe be your best man. Mo could be your flower girl!" the spirit excitedly rambled, forgetting that Pigsy had no clue who Mo was.

"Wait, what?" the demon exclaimed. "Who’s Mo?"

Sandy felt like an idiot after that. "Oh. Mo is one of my therapy cats.. He’s my favorite!" he whispered the last bit into the phone, like it was a secret he didn’t want getting out. "Anywho; you wanted to set up an appointment?" The river spirit decided to finally get back to the point of the conversation.

"Right. Me and Tangy have been looking for a therapist for our son. His name is Xiaotian, but he prefers Mk," Pigsy started.

"Wait, how do you get Mk from Xiaotian?" the spirit asked in confusion. Why would that of all things be the boy’s preferred nickname?

"Oh. It's short for Monkey Kid. We started calling him that because he climbs around and acts like a little monkey," the demon explained, watching his husband nod along with his description.

The spirit made a sound of agreement, before claiming, "Sounds like a textbook case of childhood autism. Anything else?"

Pigsy was stunned for a moment by the sudden diagnosis, but he honestly agreed. "Yeah. He's been acting out recently. Being aggressive, flippin' from happy to angry to sad on a dime, and getting in fights at school."

"Hm. Well, as an orphan, he's probably going through the five stages of grief. Anger is only the second stage though, so he might feel stuck. I'll see what times I have free. When do you guys have time?" The spirit asked calmly, like he wasn't mentally dissecting a child without meeting him.

"Uh.. None of us work on Sundays, and around 3:00 P.M. seems like a good time." He looked to his husband for approval, and got a nod in response.

"Alright. Let me check my schedule.." The rustling of pages could be heard over the phone for a few moments, before Sandy exclaimed, "Alright! I have every other week at that time open. Does that work for you?" the river spirit asked.

"Yeah. Thanks, Sandy. I'll see you then," the demon confirmed. "How much will it cost per session?" He was a little nervous about the price, but at least he knew he could trust Sandy with his son.

"It’s normally around 100 per session, but I'll give you my friends and family discount, so it'll only be 75 for you!" the river spirit said with a joyful tone.

"Pretty cheap for therapy so specialized. I gotta get back to work soon. See you on Sunday, Sandy." the Pig told the spirit, about to hang up the phone.

"See you then, brother."

*”Bao Bei” is a chinese pet name for one's lover, according to google. It’s like calling them, “Baby” or something.

——000000——

Cats and Tea

Mk was sitting behind Tang's seat in the truck, on his way to the therapy office for his first appointment. The scholar was telling him a story about the Monkey King and his lover, Liu'er Mihou. “-and then, bursting from the very shadows on the Monkey King’s chest plate, came the Six-Eared Macaque; ready to strike their opponent down! With one mighty blow from the shadow wielder’s staff, and an accompanying strike of the Monkey King’s, the battle was won! Their foe laid dead at their feet,” he emotively expressed, acting out the scene and then saying in sync with his son, “SOLAR ECLIPSE!” at the top of their lungs. Pigsy covered one of his ears as they yelled the nerdy reference, but he honestly found their shared hyperfixation adorable. He wanted to contribute to the conversation a little, so he offhandedly mentioned, “A six-eared monkey with shadow magic, huh? Sounds like a dead ringer for your Shadow Dad.” to Mk.

The Little Monkey was a little confused by that, but Tang rebutted before he could ask, “Ah! But you’re forgetting that the Six-Eared Macaque died during “The Journey to the West”, so he couldn’t have been Xiao Houzi’s Shadow Dad.”

Mk was about to ask the scholar when that happened, when he got interrupted again - this time, by Pigsy. “Didn’t you say that’s heavily disputed? And Mk has said that Shadow Dad didn’t like him bringing up Monkey King.” Again, the Monkey Kid went to ask something and got interrupted. Shadows were flickering around his hands as he gripped the seat in front of him, and they even flickered around his phantom limbs! The tail and ears flicked in annoyance as his Ba Ba said, “But that doesn’t mean it’s the same monkey. After all, I doubt Liu’er would show his ears so freely. He always glamors them away!”

Yet again, Mk was gonna talk and got interrupted, but this time, he lashed out. Right as Dadsy started talking again, the Little Monkey shouted, “WILL YOU TWO LET ME TALK?!” while punching the floor of the truck.

Both of his parents sat in stunned silence as the sound ran through the whole vehicle and Pigsy immediately braked. Everyone was breathing heavily as they tried to collect their thoughts.

Tang was first to recoup, brushing his hair back down and fixing his glasses, before turning around to look his son in the eyes as he apologized. He saw the shadows and brightly glowing eyes, but was only mildly concerned with that when he saw the look of regret and conflicted pain on his son’s face. “It’s alright, Little Monkey. I’m sorry for interrupting you. Say what you wanna say,” he comforted, brushing a hand through the tween’s hair.

It was barely anything in comparison to family grooming sessions, but it was something. It managed to calm Mk down from his anger, leaving him simply crying.

The adult panicked and reached both arms out as an invite. One that Mk took gladly, letting Tang pull him into as strong a hug as his frail arms could give. “There there, Xiao Houzi. You’re alright. We’re here. You’re here. You’re safe,” the scholar consoled his son, petting through his hair to calm him down.

Pigsy glanced at the two questioningly, letting Tang know what he was asking with his eyes. A soft nod from his husband caused him to start driving again, wanting to get to the therapy appointment as quickly as he could without scaring his kid.

As they pulled in, Mk quickly got off Tang and stepped out, looking at the boat in confusion. “A boat? That’s definitely a unique place to practice therapy.”

"It’s actually his house," the scholar corrected as he walked past.

“Unique place to live, then,” the little monkey snarked, walking up alongside Mr.Tang. He wasn’t going to admit it, but he didn’t want to go in by himself.

When they all reached the top, they were all a little nervous, though Pigsy was the first to shake it off and knock.

Then the door opened, revealing a blue skinned river spirit that towered over all of them. “Hey! Pigsy! Tangy!” The oddly pleasant spirit greeted, before glancing at the Little Monkey on the side. “And… you must be Mk, right?”

The boy was terrified. He didn’t expect his therapist to be so… muscular? He was massive! Mk stepped back a little but was stopped by Tang rubbing his back softly and calming him. Grounding him. With a deep breath, he answered, “Yes, that- that's me. Hi.”

The therapist then waved at the boy, not pressing further. “Alright. Come in, guys.” He walked back into his house, heading to the kitchen right away and leaving his client to get comfortable.

When Mk walked in, he was shocked by the place. There were tons of cats, like, at least thirty! One in particular caught his attention. An orange tabby with a blue collar was staring at him. And what was up with it's eyes?! They were so… empty. The cat approached and Mk took a step back. Then once again, and his reaction was the same. “What does it want?” he stammered, shying away from the tabby’s eyes.

“He likes you!” Sandy commented, stepping out of the kitchen with a gray, cat themed tea set. The tween jumped back from the therapist, though the spirit’s reaction was only a chuckle. Mk looked at the blue guy with confusion, before reaching down cautiously to test it.

The kitty sniffed his hand and meowed, before rubbing up against the tween with a long purr. It caused the Little Monkey to give a lopsided grin, while over at the tea table, his parents caught up with their old friend. Mk didn’t care about their conversation, though. He sat down to let the tabby climb up on him, noticing after a moment what the tag on its neck said. “Buffalo?!” he wheezed, laughing like crazy over the stupid name. “Yeah, I… lost a bet..” the blue guy mumbled, though he was giggling at the boy’s reaction. “I get what you mean. He can’t help but make you love him!” he whispered to the tween’s fathers.

Pigsy and Tang nodded, happily looking at their son. The cat was climbing all over the Little Monkey, while the Monkey was still laughing.

In moments like this, you could see that Little Sky clearing up. His sunshine smile and shining eyes peeking from behind the clouds that had covered them when he lost his Shadow Dad. After a little while, once the adults were done with their conversation, Sandy waved his client over.

He approached cautiously and kneeled on one of the bamboo mats. The cat remained on his shoulders, as the spirit poured him a cup of boiling water. Mk picked two tea bags of the plum tea, but hesitated for a second. Was this the same brand Shadow Dad used? It was the same blue cat on the lo-.. What the heck?!

That same blue cat was now standing next to the river spirit, smiling at the kitty on Mk’s shoulders. Wait… smiling? Cats don't smile. Do they? At least not like that! Of course, cats aren't normally blue either.

Eyes drifting back to the tea bags, the Monkey Kid felt a lump form in his throat. The same tea Shadow Dad used to… He was on the verge of tears when Buffalo bunted him insistently. The fluff rubbing against him knocked him out of the near tearful state, and caused him to rub his cheek against the cat in return. He finally opened the wrappers and took out the bags, before placing them into the boiling water. The blue cat seemed proud of Buffalo.

“Oh! This is Mo by the way!” The muscular spirit stated as he lifted the blue kitty into his hands. Hands, not arms, because the cat was just that small in comparison. Mk smiled softly at the cute scene, rubbing his arms as he got nostalgic again. The tabby on his shoulders bunted him again and snapped him out of it. “Buffalo is one of my therapy cats. He’s fully trained, which is why he keeps snapping you out of those sad spots,” Sandy explained to the confused tween.

“Ah,” he mumbled, petting the orange kitty on his shoulders. He felt like it deserved a little bit of loving.

After a few more moments, Sandy decided it was time to get started with the actual therapy. "Alright, Mk. Do you want your dads in here for your first session?" the spirit questioned calmly. He sounded so experienced.

"Um.. No. I wanna do the first one alone," the Little Monkey answered, a small amount of guilt creeping in when he saw his dads react.

Tang startled, and then looked down sadly while Pigsy panicked a little. "What?! Kid, are you sure? I don't wanna leave you alone! What if you have a panic attack? We know how you get when you're alo-"

"It’s best to respect the patient's wishes, Pigsy. You and Tang can wait outside. I'll make sure to get you if he has a panic attack," Sandy butted in, still sounding so calm.

Tang forced himself to remain composed as he stood up and grabbed his husband’s hand to walk out. "Of course, Sandy. Come on, Pigsy."

The moment they passed through the door, the scholar’s act fell and he started crying into his lover's chest. With a deep sigh, the demon muttered, "You're an awful actor, Tang." and dragged him off to sit in the truck.

Mk chuckled at his parents' worry, then refocused on the man in front of him, sipping his tea nervously. How was the river spirit so big?

The therapist took a sip of his own cup before asking, "Alright. How about you tell me about yourself?"

“Okay.. Well, I’m guessing my parents already told you about my outbursts?” Mk began, getting a nod in response. “Those started about two years ago. The first time, a kid was trying to steal my lunch and I bit him. My most recent one was a time where I… beat a kid over the head with a stick because he was trying to tear off my classmate’s antlers. But, I’d say I was in the right there.” Mk claimed, getting a little bitter at the end.

Sandy stroked his beard in thought for a moment. “Sounds like you have some level of anger issues, specifically a type of righteous anger that points toward a sort of internal moral debate.”

What?

“There is a likelihood of abandonment issues in orphans, and anger issues are just as likely.”

How?!

“Especially ones that emphasize one's wishes to be above their former parents, or potentially trying to make up for what one believes they’ve done wrong. Maybe even trying to live up to perceived expectations from their late paren-”

“Stop. Seriously! How are you even doing that? You sound like you’re reading from a textbook!” Mk interrupted, feeling the discussion become far too close to the truth for only having explained two outbursts.

“Okay.” The blue man said calmly, standing up and walking over to a shelf. Looking around him, one could see that he was grabbing an incense stick. When he returned, he placed it on the tray and lit it up. The smell was rather calming. It relaxed Mk before Sandy started talking again. “Could you tell me about your parents? All of them, I mean?”

“What do you mean, ‘All of them’?” the Little Monkey asked, looking for clarification.

The spirit in front of him calmly began to explain to him, “Well, all of them! Anyone you’ve ever considered a parent, and your birth parents, of course. It is my understanding that they weren’t exactly deserving of the title?” He was patient with every word. It was getting on Mk’s nerves.

“Not much to say about them. They hated me and I hated them. It’s not exactly a complicated situation,” Xiao Houzi said spitefully, picking at the skin on his arm. “But… there was my Shadow Dad… and don’t say he wasn’t real, all right?” he demanded anxiously, though he only got a calm nod in return. How did he do that? Sandy was so… relaxed, no matter what!

“Well… Shadow Dad was sort of a… shadow demon… that I met in this closet my…" he paused a moment to consider his words, then continued, "..birth parents used to lock me in when they got sick of looking at me."

Mk stared at the glowing tip of the slowly burning incense as he spoke. It was good to have something to focus on other than dwelling too much on what he was actually saying. "I don’t know why, but he decided I was worth protecting."

"He gave me this small lantern with some of his power in it." Mk glanced up at the enormous blue man to gauge just how crazy he thought he was. Seeing only understanding - maybe even belief - in his eyes, he forged onward, "If I turned it on, he’d be at my side in seconds! It was incredible!”

Sandy nodded. "And this lantern brought you comfort." It wasn't a question, but an observation.

“Yeah…" Really. How was he doing that? "I think it was about a year after that, he showed me where he lived. He would bring me there after school or whenever I needed to get away."

"Get away from what?" Sandy prodded gently.

"From my parents… or the bullies at school. Or if I was just feeling…"

"Lonely?"

"Okay. Stop doing that, or I'm gonna stop talking."

"Stop doing what?"

"Reading my freaking mind!"

"Oh," the river demon replied, as though he honestly hadn't realized he was doing it. "Sorry. Go on, Mk."

"A little while later, Shadow Dad started teaching me to use the magic in the lantern! It was so much FUN! Another year after that, he started training me to fight." Mk frowned as he realized how that might sound, so he added, "It was just the basics. Stances and how to block… not much else that a kid could do, but it was still incredible!”

The spirit made a mental note of that and kept listening.

“Another year after that, he started teaching me proper fighting, and… he made me brothers! Their names are Rumble and Savage! They're twins!"

Pausing again as his words brought back a host of memories and a flood of pain, Mk had to concentrate to keep his voice from cracking. "They were… are sixteen, so they're my older siblings. Or… actually, I guess they'd be nineteen now."

"You miss them a lot." Sandy said before he could stop himself. Throwing up his hands to placate the boy, he added, "Not reading your mind. It was just…" he scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "..obvious."

Mk sighed and continued as though Sandy had said nothing.

"They don’t talk like normal people do, but I still managed to learn their language.” He was starting to lose himself in the memories, the words flowing like water as they played in his mind. “I used to use the lantern to make myself look a little more like them. I gave myself shadow ears and a tail. Shadow Dad thought it was adorable."

Tears began to slip unnoticed from the Little Monkey’s eyes while he recounted, "I remember how the twins used to babysit me. Sometimes they would hang upside down with me, and jump-scare Shadow Dad."

They used to play with one of those little ‘put the block in the hole’ toys. It was honestly hilarious. All but one of the blocks fit in the square hole, and depending on which one was doing it, they had a different solution.” A soft smile snuck its way back onto Mk's face as he thought back to it.

“If it was Savage, they would pop the lid off and put the block in, before pretending they just managed to get it through the square hole, but if Rumble was doing it..” the Little Monkey cut himself off with a giggle. “Sorry!" he laughed again. “If Rumble was doing it, he would keep trying to get it through the hole. When it didn’t work, he would just hit the block against it until the lid broke!” Sandy laughed along with Mk at the memory.

“He always looked so proud of himself too! Like, he’d give us a smug smirk every time! And Shadow Dad would have to fix the toy before they could use it again!” Mk kept giggling, until he started thinking about something else and his smile fell away once more. “Shadow Dad… I don’t blame him for leaving. I’m a bad kid. It’s my fault he left.”

Sandy took a sip of his tea and stroked his beard in thought. “Hmm.. Are you sure about that? From the sound of it, he might not have left you by choice.”

Where did he get that idea from? “What makes you say that?” the Monkey Kid asked.

“I don’t know… you’re just talking about him like he’s the best person in the world. It sounds like he was attentive and protective of you, and someone like that wouldn’t just get rid of you."

Mk's brow furrowed as he considered this new information. Could it be true? If it was, why hadn't Shadow Dad at least explained before he left?

Seeing Mk's distress, Sandy stood and disappeared into the kitchen. He returned a moment later with a tray of tea cakes and set it down in front of the boy. "Do you remember anything that could’ve caused him to have to leave?” The spirit asked, causing the tween to think about it a little more.

Oh! Mk's widened as he recalled something he'd forgotten over the years. “He started acting really weird before he left. He was constantly tired and sluggish. Do you think that’s why? Why he left?..” the boy sounded cautiously hopeful. Maybe Shadow Dad didn’t choose to leave.. Maybe he got sick!- but… The hope faded as another, infinitely more horrible thought occurred to him. …did he die? This new possibility made a sick feeling rise in his throat. Had something bad happened to his Shadow Dad?

“That might be. Though-.. Are you okay?” Sandy cut himself off, prompting Mk to wipe his eyes. When did I start crying?-

“Uh- oh. Yeah,” the Tween confirmed as Buffalo rubbed his head against his cheek. He snickered despite the crushing weight in his chest.

His therapist looked rather disbelieving, but didn’t press farther. “Alright. Do you want to try something different?” he asked, sparking the younger’s interest. “I usually wait a couple sessions to do this, but you seem like you need it. It’s just a meditation exercise. It wouldn’t be hard,”

Mk thought on it and glanced at Mo, who gave a nod of approval. “Alright… I guess." Mk agreed, raising a brow at the cat's very human-like behavior. "What do I have to do?” the Little Monkey asked cautiously, recieving a smile from the river spirit.

“I’ll do most of the work. Just relax and mimic my pose,” Sandy responded calmly as he moved from kneeling to sitting lotus style, and placed his hands together in the shape of a triangle.

Mk moved to copy, though he was a little skeptical. What was this even gonna do?

“Alright. Now remain calm. It will feel a little weird, but don’t try to fight it," the therapist warned. "Just focus on something you want to talk about that you don’t know how to describe.”

The tween was confused, but just followed the instructions, shutting his eyes. That’s something you do when meditating, right? After about ten seconds, he felt a sensation like something tickling his nose and forehead. Well, he was warned that it would feel weird. The sensation soon changed, now feeling like there was some super powered magnet in his head trying to connect to one in Sandy’s, until that disappeared as well.

Suddenly, he felt like he was at the beach, wind blowing on him from the water. However, he still smelled the odd mix of the two teas and the lavender incense. It was weird.

“Okay.. You can open your eyes now.” the spirit offered.

Mk’s eyes opened slowly, but not his real eyes. The eyes that opened were those of his inner self. It was like waking up in a dream in a way, though the weirdest part was that there were about fifty butterflies with symbols on their wings. “Woah..” Mk muttered breathlessly.

“Mhm. This is called a mindlink. We can show each other memories and thoughts here, but we can’t see anything the other doesn’t want us to see.” Sandy explained calmly. “I’ll go first, so you know you can trust me,” he stated as he placed a hand in front of one of the butterflies. It alighted onto his hand and let him lift it to his lips, at which point he blew on it, causing it to fly to one side.

Mk’s eyes followed it and watched it fly into a tree. Then, suddenly, everything to that side shifted to something else.

Sandy and a bunch of others, running from something, until the others disappeared, leaving the spirit alone with a bunch of weird creatures. Sandy looked around in what seemed to be fear, until he spotted someone holding a detonator. Anger overcame him and he dashed forward, punching the person in the face and causing them to hit the button.

Right as the explosion went off though, it paused and shifted to something much less shocking. Sandy, covered in cats and brewing tea, though what Mk didn’t expect was a tattoo across the therapist’s shoulder blades. He must have noticed the shock, because the spirit chuckled. “After I got therapy, I got that tattoo to show that I overcame my own anger issues,” he explained, turning around to give the tween a better look.

The large tattoo depicted a phoenix with its wings stretched out. It was a gorgeous sight, and a testament to Sandy’s devotion to getting better. Mk wanted one now. He was about to compliment it, when one of the butterflies flew over and landed on his nose, making him sneeze.

The butterfly flew to the opposite side and created a familiar image. Xiaotian sitting in a closet, though it was presented as if it was a shadow play. Xiao-Xiao was crying until Shadow Dad stepped into frame. He beckoned the child and walked over to the side again, though this time the view followed him as the Little Sky did too.

Mk was getting misty eyed again, though Sandy was a little confused. He was no stranger to stylized memories, but this was a new one. He didn’t bring it up, and simply watched respectfully.

Two more shadows entered, one rushing to pick Xiaotian up as the other followed with a protective eye. The little sky was giggling along, though it was echoey - to the point that it seemed ominous. Then Shadow Dad walked away, dispersing like so much smoke as he left the area of the memory. Then the twins went too… Mk left behind. Mk started pounding on the edge of the frame desperately, watching helplessly as his family walked away.

The Monkey Kid was crying again now… Then he felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced behind him. Pigsy was standing there with a sympathetic look on his face. Memory-Pigsy then kneeled down to give his son a strong, steady hug. Tang appeared on his other side and did the same, though his hug was much softer due to his weaker physique. Safety. Xiao Houzi was still crying, but he felt safe. They kept him safe. He wasn’t going to get hurt. He was safe.

—

Pigsy was too nervous to stand still now. It felt like forever since they were told they weren't wanted in the session. He and Tang walked up to the door again, about to knock, when Mk stepped out, a self help book in hand. The thing that caught Pigsy and Tang’s attention most, though, was that their son was smiling. Smiling softly, gently. Not a forced smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. A pure and real smile! He looked calm. He looked… happy. “Hi, dads!” he said cheerfully.

“Wow. You look better already!” Pigsy snickered, Tang letting out a long breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

“See? I told you Sandy could handle it,” the scholar tried to avoid anyone knowing he was more worried than the pig was.

“Oh, no, you don't! You were pestering me the whole time about checking on Mk!” the demon argued, not noticing how his son's smile widened.

He was safe. It would be okay.

It filled the shadow with relief. He finally had a chance to slip away. Down.. Down.. Deep under Megapolis… to the one person who could hear him speak.

“Ah! Greetings, uncle!” a young demon said as he pressed a button behind his ear, activating a special communicator.

“Hehehe.. Heya, nephew..”

—☆—

And- FINALLY DONE!!!

Sorry for taking so long. It was very hard to write. :(

The ShadowDad AU can finally progress! It’s been so long! Thanks for your patience, and above all else,

Have fun, and happy scrolling!

(Ps: Mk calls Nezha "Big Brother" because he's always watching)

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