Better Days {ShadowPeach}

Why.

[Friday]

Wukong sat on his tail, eating the pie from yesterday, still proud of his accomplishment.  He watched as MK tossed the staff around practicing moves. Macaque stayed inside, wrapped around his blanket, he hadn't moved from the couch ever since last time, he only ate half of the pie last night before going back to sleep. It was late in the morning so Wukong just thinks he went back to sleep, he was slightly surprised that he hadn't tried to run last night but knew that in his condition he wouldn't have gotten far.

There was a slight spring breeze that made its way through the trees, MK's hair, and the King's fur, along with the soothing smell of wood and sap. MK cheerfully smiled as he tossed the staff into the air, did a flip, then landed on his feet, nearly tipping over  "DID YOU SEE THAT MONKEY KING!? WASN'T THAT AMAZING!?" He couldn't help but smile at the kid, "Yeah that was so cool bud." MK laughed at his achievement before doing it again but with different poses and flips. Wukong watched him dance with the staff. He still smiled, cherishing this happy little moment but he knew he would have to address this question to
the kid "MK." the king called to his successor with a flat voice. MK stopped before throwing his staff in the air again. He smiled at the King, waiting. "Why...why did you want to save... him?"  MK slowly dropped his smile then looked at the staff in his hand. "I... couldn't explain it at the time but... we hadn't seen him for long...and after seeing him in that state just felt...wrong." His grip on the staff hardens before turning away from the brown Monkey. Wukong didn't want to admit but he did feel some sort of pity for the other monkey, even though he knew this deep down, he would never say it out loud. 

In the afternoon, Monkey King has requested that MK shall run to one of the waterfalls located a bit farther out in the woods and come back with two dark opal basil, he claimed that he had a surprise for him once he was done. In reality, he needs alone time with Macaque, he had a few more questions we would like to ask him that he wasn't able to do before, Wukong was still going to give him a surprise, but that would have to wait till tomorrow.

Sitting down in one of the chairs that faced the monkey who still hadn't moved from his spot on the couch, bunched up in a blanket but limbs spread, just a bit. He faced away from the open area with his ears tucked backed and the blanket up to cover his mouth. He watched as the blanket rose and fell in a repetitive action. Wukong studied the monkey along with past actions he had done yesterday. He came to an obvious conclusion that Macaque doesn't sleep often. He takes no care of himself. For some reason, this irritated the King. He signed realizing that the monkey won't wake up anytime soon if he doesn't do anything. 

He gets up from the chair and moves over to the resting monkey. He reached out to shake him but before he could lay his paw on him he remembered the last time when he touched him. Rejecting the idea, he brings his head to Macaque's ear. He gets a closer look at his ears, multicolored ears. Wukongs eyes widen as he let out a gasp. There were only two ears, the third one seems to be clawed or ripped off. Disturbed, he back away quickly. The monkey moved and shifted around before slowly bringing himself to a sitting position. His legs and feet are still on the couch.  Wukong tried to hide his revolted expression with a blank face but it only turned out to look like he was annoyed. Macaque looked sheepily at him, his eyes barely open and head tilted aside. He yawned quietly closing his eyes again before reopening them but only slightly wider to get a better look at his surroundings. He winced at a sharp pain on the side of his stomach, Wukong sat back down in his chair trying to keep himself from staring at the torn-off ear. 

"So..." Macaque was the first to talk this time, "I'm guessing you aren't here to check my health, nurse Wukong" Ignoring the comment Macaque made he went on to speak his piece, "I believe you should know that MK was the one who sympathized you. So as he said before, you should respect him more." Macaque sulked and mumbled something under his breath. Ignoring him again, he continued. "Another thing is that I'm not going to have you sit here doing nothing but sleep. You're going to take some chores around here." Macaque groaned, slithering back into laying on his side facing away from Wukong. The king was getting annoyed with his attitude finally started to ask him questions. "Where were you going? Before we found you."

"None of you're business"

"What were you carrying?"

"Stuff."

"What did you steal for that demon?"

"A rock."

Wukong snarled. Macaque ignored.

"What happened to your room?"

Macaque didn't say anything, he tensed up. "Macaque. What happened to your room?" "Why were you even in there?" He growled but didn't have the strength to turn to face him. "Why are you here?" Wukong sighed, giving up on this poor game of 20 questions, he got up from the chair walking over to the back door. "If I'm being honest... I'm trying to make better memories. Ones that don't involve you." Wukong said facing the back door. Both monkeys' backs face each other. Either refused to say anything else, Macaque trembled a bit gripping the blanket. Wukong slid open the door but before leaving he said. "You should cover your ear... the one that's missing before MK sees." Then that was it. Wukong had the word, as always. He exits the cabin closing the door behind him.

Macaque brought the blanket over his head, his trembling got worse, whatever emotion was trying to come out got rejected. When the blanket covered his head entirely he moved his paw to his missing ear. A tear escaped before it was hastily removed from his face.

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MK came rushing back with the two dark opal basils, as requested. He gave the plant to the Monkey King. "Soooo?~ my prize!?" MK bounced up and down excitedly. The King laughed, "You gotta wait till tomorrow." MK groaned and pouted a bit before returning to his usual optimistic state. 

{Sorry for taking a long time to update this story have a bagel 🥯}