Pretentious Faces (Masquerade Au)

Ship Rest

Pigsy finished wrapping the monkey's ribs, trying to ignore the pained wheezes. MK smiled hesitantly, "So, uh, he wasn't on a trip. Well, he was, but it was actually a mission?" Mei raised a brow at her friend, "Okay...and that mission was for..?"

"The Lady Bone Demon. It was to stop the Lady Bone Demon." Wukong mumbled softly, his fingers grazing the gauze wrapped around his head, slightly nudged beneath the top of his mask. Sandy sat down silently, kind eyes trained on the king, "And how do we stop her, Mr. King?" Wukong made a small noise of embarrassment, slowly facing away, "Tha Samadhi Fire--"

Tang began to vibrate in his spot, staring through the monkey's damaged mask. Wukong visibly shivered before waving a hand at the scholar, "Go ahead, knock yourself out." The man beamed, immediately talking about the destructive flames.

"There are four rings, which is the fire split into four. We need to collect the three other rings and unify them. That, however, is the tricky part." Wukong rubbed a hand against the floorboards anxiously. Pigsy perked up, "Wait, we need three more? You have th'fourth?" Wukong made a grimacing noise, "Uhm...no. Mei does."

At the confession, the dragon girl blinked in surprise, "I do?" The monkey nodded slowly, "Uhm, during the ceremony in which the rings were split, I... I was forming one of them and...something happened. Ao Lie ended up with a fourth piece of the fire in him, which was passed down through generations."

He faced Mei fully, his posture regal despite his battered appearance, "You are the fourth ring, and you have the potential to become one with the Samadhi."

MK raised his hand, "So, Mei's gonna be a super cool fire dragon?" Wukong snorted airly, "Yeah...if she wants that." Mei startled at the fact she had a choice, wide eyes staring back at the king. Weighing the pros and cons, the girl puffed out her chest and gave a harsh grin.

"Bet."

---

MK had told them beforehand that Monkey King had his strange habits. Sandy had even suggested that the king was simply unused to living life the way they did, interacting with people included.

"Monkey King, come join us! It's going to be nightfall soon." Sandy beckoned the monkey over, but Wukong stayed planted to the dock, "Uh, sure! Later, I'm just trying to figure something out. You guys go ahead, though." The boat man hummed, moving away.

As he passed through the kitchen, he spoke softly to his old friends, "He isn't sleeping. This is the third night in a row." Pigsy huffed, rubbing his cheek, "An' he hasn't eaten. How's he s'possed to heal at this rate?" Tang seemed to sort through a flurry of thoughts before suddenly puffing out his chest and rolling up his sleeves, "I'll be back."

Sandy and Pigsy watched as the scholar left towards the docks.

---

"You need to sleep." The man stated bluntly, his glasses holding a sharp glint despite the darkness of the night.

Wukong flinched slightly, one of his hands pressed against his head wound. Tang's eyes widened, having caught the king red-handed. The scholar swallowed thickly, "So that's how you've kept yourself awake..." Wukong dropped his hands, held tilted away from the human.

"...The circlet. Did you ever-?"

The monkey shifted in place, hands clutched against his pants, "Just forget it. Doesn't matter. What matters is that anything can happen while I'm asleep, okay? At least one of us should stay up to--"

"The ship has alarms." The scholar gestured at the dimmed lights, glancing back towards Wukong, "You can sleep. It's safe, and if it isn't there are safety measures. This isn't your burden anymore, Monkey King. Just please, no more hurting yourself." Wukong shivered slightly, nodding slowly, "Okay."