Seeing Through the Trauma

The End Of An Era (21)

"So, anyone gonna tell us what happened then? Why was that ice lady back?" Pigsy asked a few minutes later. MK shoved some noodles into his mouth to avoid answering, having been eating as slowly as possible to avoid this conversation for as long as he could.

"You mean the Lady Bone Demon?" Tang corrected and Pigsy nodded, glancing back at the others. 

"Right, her." No one spoke up for a solid second but MK could practically feel the looks Mei and Red Son were flicking his way and eventually, he sighed, staring down at the table. 

"It was my fault. I let her out on accident." He mumbled, eyes staring into the wooden table, tracing the lines and grooves like they were the most interesting thing in the room. 

"What? How on earth did ya-" He paused, turning his head to glare at Macaque and Wukong. 

"I thought you were supposed to be lookin' after him!?" He yelled, pointing a finger at the two and Wukong winced at the accusation there. 

"I mean- we were-" 

"Obviously not good enough! I told you we should have told MK about her. She better not have hurt him again or so help me-" MK looked up, eyes wide as shook his head. 

"Pigsy, wait. It was my fault-" He started and he turned back to look at MK, expression a touch softer than it had been while he was glaring at MK's dad's. 

"It's not, kid. It's their fault for keeping that from you in the first place!" He huffed, crossing his arms and MK was pretty sure it was his fault so he didn't really understand why Pigsy wasn't upset with him.

"Anyway, we're not getting anywhere so why don't we drop the blame game for a minute so they can tell us what happened?" Tang pipped up, his suggestion making Pigsy sigh as all the fight dropped out of him. 

"Yeah, you're right. So she got free and then what? No one got hurt, right? You all look okay." He said and MK suppressed a flinch, fighting to keep still as Mei glanced at him silently and he could practically hear the way Wukong and Macaque tensed up at the wrong assumption. 

He could tell Pigsy caught the looks too, his eyes narrowing in concern especially when he noticed Mei's worried look sent his way. MK tried to ignore it and quickly changed the subject. 

"We're fine now, and the uh- the Bone Demon's gone for good so... so that's good." He said awkwardly, stumbling over his words. It felt weird to say she was dead because that word made MK uncomfortable, even just thinking about it made his chest feel cold and tight and he brought his hand up to rub his chest, hoping that would get rid of the tight feeling there. 

It didn't really help, and he quickly snatched his hand back under the table at the feeling of eyes on him, turning his head to the side to find Tang watching him with an unreadable, too-knowing expression. 

"Right. What about those weird cracks in the sky then? Did she do that somehow?" Pigsy asked and MK's face paled, the reminder of Azure and the fact that he was dead now, probably because of MK himself. If he hadn't gotten hurt and Wukong, Red Son and Mei hadn't left then maybe the Lady Bone Demon wouldn't have had the chance to kill him.

"That was actually a different person. Azure Lion, an old acquaintance of Wukong and I killed the Jade Emperor. Hence the cracks in the sky." Macaque explained a little bluntly and Mei nodded. 

"Yeah! We got sucked into this weird scroll thingy and my sword broke but I made a new one and there was this ink monster and then that guy, Azure pulled us out but actually wanted to take over the celestial realm with his friends and we have to try and get Wukong and Macaque back cause they were in the scroll still and it was really intense! MK-" All of Mei's enthusiasm died right then and there, her eyes flicking to him as her gesturing hands stopped and she paused.