A Son Of Two Dad's

Scares

The next day they finished training early and headed back to Monkey King's house. 

"We should make dinner!" MK yelled as he ran into the kitchen, Monkey King following with a fond smile on his face. 

"Yeah? I probably won't be much use." He said but watched as MK grabbed some of the ingredients he'd brought with him the previous day. 

"It's fine. I'll teach you! We're gonna make noodles." Mostly because that was the only thing MK knew how to cook. 

It was a fun experience, especially for MK when he learned that Monkey King was hopeless at cooking. He'd teased the immortal about it and had received flour to the face as a penance. When MK had gasped and thrown some back in retaliation, they both ended up laughing, covered in flour head to toe. 

"We should probably get cleaned up." Monkey King suggested, looking at his dirty paws and fur after they'd eaten. MK nodded, agreeing because when he shook his head flour came out of his hair and he was pretty sure it was all over his face as well. 

"You can clean up first if you want, bud." The Monkey King gestured to the bathroom and MK tilted his head, amused. 

"I thought you just showered in the waterfall or something." He sniggered, only laughing louder when Monkey King used his tail to shove MK off the stool he was sitting on and onto the floor with a pout.

"No way, one good thing about humanity evolving is that now I can have warm showers." MK grinned, getting up from the floor though secretly agreeing. There wasn't much better than a warm shower, especially when your bones are feeling sore.

"There's a spare towel in the cupboard you can use!" Monkey King called after him as he left the room, slipping into the bathroom and preparing himself to try and work out how the shower worked.   

It took an embarrassingly long time, and MK first sprayed himself with extremely cold water, but eventually, he got it right, stepping in and allowing his thoughts to run away, mind blissfully blank as he hummed.

The humming turned a little louder as he washed off all the flour, water dripping down his hair and past his eyes. Then, he started singing a few words to a song he'd listened to not that long ago, enjoying the feeling of the music. In hindsight, maybe he should have brought his headphones with him so he could listen to something in the evening just after they finished training. 

It was something to remember for next time, anyway. 

When he got out, towel wrapped around his waist, humming tapering off he saw Monkey King in the kitchen cleaning up with his back to him, he smiled. 

"Hey, I'm done if you wanna go in too." He said, watching as Monkey King turned around, a smile on his face until his eyes caught sight of MK and suddenly he was letting out a small gasp, eyes widening in surprise. 

"Kid..." MK scrunched his eyebrows in confusion at the look the immortal was giving him, the absolute horror on his face, and looked down, following the Monkey King's gaze to see his own chest and legs and arms, covered in old scars and marks. 

"Oh." He flushed shamefully, arms wrapping around his chest in some form of self-soothing and trying to cover as many of them up as he could. He'd honestly forgotten. 

"Sorry." He mumbled out quietly, though he wasn't even sure what he was apologizing for it just felt like the only thing he could say. Monkey King's expression grew even softer at that and he walked carefully towards MK, movements slow so that MK could follow them. 

When he was close enough, tail lashing out behind him, he paused for just a second, searching MK's face before looking back down at the scars littering the boy's body and promptly tugging him into a hug. 

It was impractical because MK was clean and damp and Monkey King was still covered in flour and yet as soon as the immortal's arms were wrapped around MK he visibly sagged, pulling himself in closer and burying his face into the others' fur. 

Monkey King felt his heart collapse at the quiet sniffles that started coming from the kid as he held on tighter and MK snuggled in closer, too. Using Monkey King like a lifeline. 

"It's okay." Monkey King found himself saying softly, even though he knew it wasn't. Even though below the surface he could still feel that animalistic rage at the thought of someone doing that to MK. Sweet, lively, bright MK, who could light up a room with just his smile. Who was kind to a fault and always strived to do better. 

Part of Wukong wanted to find whoever did this and tear them to pieces but the bigger part of him, the part in the near and now only held MK closer, running a paw through his hair soothingly while his- the kid calmed down. 

Eventually, MK pulled away, rubbing the snot off his face and wiping his damp eyes with a small, pitiful smile. 

"Sorry." He let out softly and Sun Wukong waved it away. 

"It's okay, kid." And then a little more awkwardly, 

"You feelin' any better?" He asked. It had been a long time since he'd ever had to comfort someone, the last time being- he stopped that train of thought immediately, mind flashing to tiny fingers for a second before he focused on MK again. 

"Yeah, actually." MK sniffled one last time, feeling lighter after letting out the sadness he'd been carrying around inside him. Mei had been right when she'd said there was nothing a hug couldn't fix, he thought in amusement. 

Then his eyes wavered down to his arms and chest, which now had wet bits of flour on it. 

"Oh." He found himself saying, bursting into laughter afterward. 

"You might wanna go rinse off again." Monkey King said with a small smile and MK nodded even though he didn't really want to leave. 

"Yeah, yeah I should do that." His leg didn't move when he told it to, though, caught on something and he looked down to see Monkey King's tail wrapped around his leg tightly, the weight comforting, grounding and something he hadn't noticed happening. 

Seeing his pause Monkey King followed MK's gaze, eyes seeing his tail and quickly pulling it away, not having noticed himself doing that either and feeling embarrassed. 

MK shot him a bright, delighted smile that had his heart softening before he left to go take another shower, bounding away like all was right with the world. 

Monkey King's smile stayed in place for a few seconds after MK had left and then slipped off into a frown as his mind recalled the sight of MK's scars, all old and thick. Not for the first time in his life, Monkey King wished he had the power to go back in time if only to spare this bright kid all the pain that life had caused him unnecessarily. If only to see him shine a little brighter. 

(My god I love these two more than anyone has the right to! They deserve so much love, I really need to stop hurting them lol. Still, I hope you liked this chapter, and if you did feel free to leave a comment. I love all you guys and thank you for reading.)