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Chapter 8 // Peaches

“No!”

“Liu’er Mihou!”

“Sun Wukong!”

“I -Macaque!”

“Monkey!”

Wukong falls back on the floor, defeated. He stares up at the ceiling in complete and utter misery.

“I literally made you, why are you like this?”

“Mhm.” That tiny little humming noise makes him groan and toss an arm over his eyes. Despite only having two ears, he can hear Mihou swinging his legs back and forth happily on the counter.

“Please?”

“No!”

“For me?”

“No!”

“Pleaaaase? Do this for me, you’re-”

“No!”

“-my most wonderful tiny little moon, my greatest warrior-”

That gets the object of their debate thrown at him.

Wukong watches blankly at the peach smeared next to his head. The stone fruit, a legendary artifact that could grant immortality to anyone, the food of the gods stolen right from their garden in the Celestial Realm, a fruit thousands would fight to the death for the right to take even the tiniest bite…is smeared on the kitchen floor like an unwanted toddler’s porridge.

Wukong really should have seen it coming, in all honesty.

His little brother is dramatic.

…and regrettably, no matter how young or old he is, Mihou fucking hates peaches.

I should just shove it down his throat, part of him thinks -only for Wukong’s entire body to immediately reject such an act vehemently. When he did it last time, he’d been half drunk still on the immortal wine and Macaque had been a young adult. He’d understood there was no room to argue, that he needed the peach if he was to survive the upcoming armies of Heaven coming to their kingdom in search of revenge.

But now-

Mihou is small. He’s small, he’s a kid -tiny and small and delicate and oh so unsure of what is happening. The knowledge of his fragility has been bouncing around the Sage’s skull for several hours ever since he’s made the connection. For Buddah’s sake, only yesterday for the child he’d been training with Beng.

Beng isn’t here now.

That past that was Mihou’s present -it’s gone.

Gone, all gone, burnt away because of Wukong’s mistakes.

…and now, Wukong is the only thing Mihou has left. And despite how strange he seems to the child, Mihou still trusts him. Immediately, fully, to a sickening degree knowing what came after. Wukong’s not going to violate that trust even for the kid’s safety. Not now -not when he has other options to pick from. He has other immortalities he could offer the kid first.

MK won’t kill him too much if he accidentally sees Wukong feeding Mihou wine, right?

….by the gods, that sounds terrible in his own head.

But how can he give Mihou the peach though? The first immortality he stole from the heavens. He needs to do it soon. Mihou running around as mortal as a newborn celestial monkey is not an option.