Seeing Through the Trauma

Couple Therapy (38)

(So no one gets confused, this is set slightly backwards in time, this is Wukong's POV after MK, Red and Red's parents leave the room. This is his conversation with Macaque.) 

Wukong felt somehow even more awkward now that the others had left the kitchen. Without MK in the room to encourage him it was just Wukong and Macaque, and Wukong wasn't sure where to start when his lover wasn't even looking at him, eyes flattened into hard, narrow lines. 

Not that Wukong didn't blame him. He'd said some pretty awful stuff after all. 

"I'm... sorry." He managed to get himself to say, tone just as awkward as he felt and he winced at the sound of his own voice, his tail coiling around his ankle before he forced it still and tried to study Macaque's expression instead. 

He looked unimpressed, face impassive like a stone wall. 

"I shouldn't have said that stuff- I- I was just mad you didn't tell me-" 

"I don't have to tell you everything." Macaque snapped back and Wukong frowned, trying to keep a lid on the immediate rebuttal on his tongue and reminding himself Macaque was probably just defensive because Wukong had been so cruel before. He deserved a bit of snappiness.  

"Sure, but this was something I should have known-" 

"Is it?" Macaque turned to look at him, eyes angry still but beneath that Wukong saw the hurt and guilt made him gulp. 

"Considering how you acted when you found out it was probably for the best I didn't mention it." He scoffed and Wukong took a step forward, pleading. 

"Hey, that's not fair. I shouldn't have yelled or grabbed Red Son but that doesn't mean I didn't deserve to know-" 

"Right, 'cause you're his dad. Not like me apparently." Macaque scoffed and Wukong felt frustration bubble inside him, tail flicking to the side irritably. 

"You know I didn't mean it like that-" 

"But you did, didn't you? You've always thought you're more of a parent to MK than me, haven't you? Just cause you've always loved him and I didn't." It was hard to argue with because in some way it was true. Wukong thought of all the years he spent longing and missing his little baby. He thought of the two years of bliss before Macaque ruined it and he thought of the pain of waiting all that time not knowing how his own little boy was doing. 

He thought of all that and thought of how Macaque had probably been chuckling to himself throughout it and anger boiled in his veins. 

"That's not fair. I did love him more than you did! You didn't even want him-" 

"Oh fuck you, Wukong!" Macaque stood, stalking toward him and poking him in the chest with his finger, eyes livid. 

"I love him just as much as you do-" 

"Then why was I the one suffering for so long?" He yelled, voice echoing a touch in the room but he didn't care about it, pushing past the thought that this was going off track and that this wasn't what he was here to do and instead stepping closer to the other. 

"Why was I the one alone and hurting while you just get to enjoy being a parent now without even telling me important things going on with my son? I've already missed almost all of his life because of you-" He snapped his mouth shut, realizing what he was saying too late and feeling his eyes widen with surprise. He also saw Macaque's expression go wide with surprise and pain before snapping shut into something cruel again.

"Or because of you. You're the one that gave him up, you're the one that didn't even try to keep him." Words aimed to hurt they did their job, and Wukong's chest ached with pain before he growled, tail lashing like a snake.