MK slides out of the cabin and rushes away as he accepts the call.
“Please tell me you have something, Tang.” He croaks into the phone, fighting back the prickle in his own eyes. He doesn’t even want to think how Monkey King is handling Macaque right now. The piercing wails he can still hear through the closed door will haunt him for a long, long time.
He hurries away from it, not wanting to bear witness to such raw pain. Silently, he hopes Monkey King will be able to handle it -his mentor’s reaction to Macaque’s child form might have not been the best, but the way the god swept up the toddler in his arms the moment the crying started? It reassures MK.
Maybe things will be alright…with time.
But until then -well, MK has to do his part.
“...hi?” Tang hesitates, his voice almost too quiet. MK is quick to speed walk away from the hut. The farther he is from the source of the noise, the better it feels for his ears and heart. “It’s not going well, is it?” The scholar guesses blandly.
MK bites his lower lip and refrains from making a comment about it.
“Depends.” He answers cryptically, and the fact Tang doesn’t push it makes part of him sag in relief. MK just doesn’t have the emotional energy for that explanation right now. Maybe not for a while. He wishes he could close his eyes and it’s still morning. No cursed urn, no tiny Macaque, no new mysteries -just a nice, normal day.
A stupid wish.
“Just -please tell me you have anything?” He whispers into the phone as he walks over to the peach tree in the middle of the cave and plops down on it.
Immediately, some of the monkeys come over. Nervous chittering is exchanged between them -clearly they’re not feeling very peppy given Monkey King’s current state- but they slowly start to gather and pile up on MK in a very familiar manner. Tiny hands tug at his hair, his jacket, his pants gently, trying to groom him.
One of the smaller monkeys that MK recognizes with the brown mark at the tip of its tail rolls into his arms and ends up like that belly up in offering. It’s one of the friendlier ones, and the first he’s ever really played with. MK reaches down with one hand and absentmindedly scratches its tummy. It chirps quietly, clearly pleased.
“Well…yes?” Tang answers hesitantly and oh, isn’t that perfect? “Depends on what you mean.” The scholar shuffles something on the other side of the phone; from the sounds of it, MK takes a guess to say it’s paper. He speaks up again, faster now, more cheery. “The museum was very helpful and offered me a lot of amazing contacts! I’ve been running around all afternoon talking to a lot of interesting people-”
MK cringes.
“Tang please tell me you didn’t get lured into a back alley again because of a demon selling rare books-”
“I did not!” The older man says, aghast, but there’s something about the way he also sounds proud that almost pierces the heaviness on MK’s shoulders. As if Tang is happy that this time, MK didn’t have to come storming in to save him from a demon shopkeeper ready to pull him over the counter and make him disappear. Before it was Pigsy who did it; now as the Monkey King’s successor, MK is more often than not saddled with the responsibility of saving Tang from his scholarly obsessions. “I shopped around. Went to a few local shops. Spoke to a few contacts -and talked to the staff at the museum!” He reveals proudly.
MK frowns, reaching up on the monkey to scratch its ears. It rumbles happily.
“And…?”
He hears Tang falter.
YOU ARE READING
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FanfictionIt all starts because Tang wants to go to a new exhibit at the museum. And it ends with MK having his arms full of baby monkey, and more than a few questions for his mentor. Or : Season 1 AU, Macaque gets his clock turned back, and accidentally reve...
