Chapter Text
Tripping and almost falling on one's face was not quite the agenda.
Just before Macaque was about to biff it, the shadow was able to lean his body weight against a brick alley wall, teleportation…faulty. The black and white monkey’s left leg jolted to life out of panic at the now residing old King's loud commanding voice. This made the shadow lurch forward ready to flee at a moment's notice. Unfortunately an unresponsive muscle that suddenly glitches from its nervous system jump start only leaves room for error. Macaque stood by the wall a moment, his breath picked up dramatically. Wasn’t expecting a visit from the King himself. The f*cking asshole actually got off his throne for once to talk to the commoners. How generous…
Macaque, well..attempted to teleport away before he tripped, ready to run when he heard the King’s beck and call. His own portal however as you would say, ‘metaphorically’ hissed at him.
The shadow magic user doesn’t remember how he attained these powers as unique as his, however when Macaque was ever weak... Whenever the shadow monkey’s powers were completely drained because of Macaque’s bad state, it was an immediate no for teleporting.
Shadow magic is a very special kind of fragile yet striking sense of liberation. The power alone has the potential to surpass gods. Macaque however..never really knew much of his power given to him, his young past memories a huge blur. Forgotten, banished, exiled to the very back of his skull. Sometimes life simply started with a curse. Macaque was one of the ones who fit into this criteria.
The taboo practice of using the shadows from beings within one of the eighteen levels of Diyu souls, was considered a forgotten ritual from all lands around the time Macaque was created. It is said the souls from the unknown level contain much agony and pain. Their energy combined alone within the realm could lead to millions of unknown sources of power.
A cult of sorts discovered how to cut through the interdimensional space; right through the mortal realm, levels of Diyu, and celestial heavens. Macaque vaguely remembers the ultimate goal for the followers was to use their magic to supposedly cut through into a reality where you come face to face with Buddha himself. Before the goal was reached, the cult became heavenly fascinated with the shadow realm of Diyu they stumbled upon.
The people who used to practice with the dark magic to cut between space and time all died out when their curiosity became too much in the pursuit of wanting to learn more and more of Diyu’s mysterious level they fabricated. When first entering the Diyu shadow realm, it was known that you were to hear voices. Traveling through the space between dimensions, going within the depths of the black abyss of souls all blended together, was an unknown jump from a cliff not quite understanding if there's water below at the bottom or not.
The untold jump of traveling through space between spaces.
Unheard sources of power from all the squirming souls within the Diyu realm led to something extraordinary. Teleportation. One has to apply precise focus when entering the realm. If thoughts are scattered and weakened, the souls can convince you with their sweet words of nothingness. Some cultists with too heavy of burdens weighing upon their perception of life were said to hear voices outside of using magic. Weak minds were taken and never seen again. People who were physically weak were also susceptible to walking into their own demise. Shadows were said to enter through your cuts or deformities. Weak bodies were taken and never seen again.
The voices were said to get louder with each teleportation, each jump into the black puddle catered to another whisper. Macaque was the only one left with this forbidden magic, the last one taught. The rest who followed in shadow magic practice allowed the voices within the Diyu realm to take over their minds and make them mad. Macaque watched many suicides take place when the perfect candidates for shadow magic would allow the voices to lure them within the level of Diyu and never resurface from the black void.
Smiles upon their faces, babbling to themselves as if fighting their inner demons, before opening one final gateway into Diyu and being dragged into it by tendrils of arms and black symbiote tenaculum grabbing every part of you. And then you never come back.
Each student, all but a necessary sacrifice to test the limitations of cutting through the gap between gaps.
Macaque was fortunate, for he never heard a single voice within the realm when he would portal. The shadow monkey would feel the intense cold of all the souls, as all within practically created their own freezer in their realm of excruciating haunting. However inside the cold realm of visible screams, for the shade, it was a completely silent place.
Long story short, Macaque was part of…well basically a cult at one point. The memories of that part of his past are a distant blur, a puddle of wrinkled liquid within his mind that will never cease its disturbed ripples that continue to make the water murky. Years and years of a forgotten past. Which was starting to become more common among the black and white monkey’s problem with his buried memories.
When one wishes to call upon this dark magic and use it, they are always putting themselves at risk to be convinced or physically dragged to that pit of hell. The souls themselves have no power over your soul..unless you're in a weakened state of course. If you are mentally faulty, you may simply never want to leave the realm by choice, and then you will never escape. If you are physically too weak the lost souls will attempt to pull your own soul into the realm to make you one with them.
Macaque wasn't doing so hot right now. Burnt back, infected leg, cuts all over his body, and teeth chattering induced chills that Macaque was doing everything in his power not to physically show. The black and white simian’s portal he tried to open was a mistake that could have cost him his life if he were to have jumped through at that moment.
Macaque, when Monkey King startled him, attempted to open a portal next to his feet. The next step would have had Macaque escape this situation entirely, away from the other simian’s intense glare into the back of his head. When the shadow took a step to enter the void, black distorted hands of black tar shot out from the depths of Macaque’s summoning of magic, and grabbed his hurt ankle. This of course caused a physical looking trip, as Macaque instantly yanked his leg out of the portal just in time for the souls to not pull him in completely. Close call.
Could have died in front of Wukong a second time and Wukong wouldn’t have had to lift a damn finger.
Pure panic befell Macaque’s face when he realized this. He’s so weak that Diyu almost plucked him right out of the mortal realm to take him back.
Macaque felt sick. He felt angry. One little miscalculation from weakness could send the shadow permanently back into his prison cell…actually solitary would be more like it. The level of hell within Diyu used by the ones who practice shadow magic, said the realm has the most concentrated form of punishment. It is spoken to be close to the horrors of eternal torture. Macaque’s own level of his within Diyu was hell enough.
The shadows leapt and thrived to try to take back Macaque’s battered old black boot before they were concealed with the shadow monkey’s fast thinking. Macaque’s left leg now shakes from his unconcerned weight that was forced upon it.
“It also appears a bit late for you to be annoying me at this hour, too.” Macaque’s response was through gritted teeth as he shook himself from his sudden adrenaline rush from well..almost dying again over such an almost disastrous teleport.
Wukong flew in on his nimbus cloud lowering himself to the ground. The sheer amount of wind equaled to that of a real Cumulonimbus about to fabricate a thunderstorm with tornadoes and hail. Small scatters of static electricity could be seen dancing off the little cloud under the celestial monkey’s feet. Wukong was clearly in a bad mood if his little nimbus cloud was such a natural disaster.
Said tornado no longer wore his horrid cop outfit, thank the gods. Instead the Sage’s normal attire consists of his gold chest plate and yellow long sleeved garment underneath. The golden monkey’s vibrant red and turquoise coattail and cutting-edge cape swayed in the wild air. Long red pants with bottom golden rims, covering every inch of Wukong’s auburn fur on his legs. The Sage’s pants were accompanied with sleek new black boots. Wukong’s headdress was again placed upon his scalp, the rich red phoenix feathers were teased by the wind, never to take flight.
The force of the wind was so strong the black and white monkey’s already scuffed up enough scarf came loose from his neck almost blowing away. Macaque reached out and grabbed the faded red material just in time. More new holes were heard being torn in the attempt at catching the old material. The shadow’s monkey’s neck was fully exposed now. A white blotch of fur in the shape of a handprint around his front neck and back of the nape heavily contrasted with the black night sky. Instant chills clawed through Macaque’s exposed previously warm fur. Macaque immediately placed his scarf back around his neck in a rush.
A soda can that lay on the street’s stretch flew upward and hit Macaque straight in the back of the head. Now this is what made Macaque turn around in fury. Such a small breaking point…Macaque unfortunately succumbs to instead of walking away.
Macaque too, could prove to be his own tornado. Though the cold that always chased the hot that held Macaque’s force of destruction together woefully ran more cold. With two much of one temperature consuming the other, Macaque’s cyclone is unsteady and close to arrhythmic failure. Yet the tornado could be lit with flame. Macaque’s hatred, his scorn within, this fire is what balances the temperature within Macaque’s own storm. Without it the shadow’s twister would fail to gain heavy winds. It would fail to spin.
The golden simian could tell the soda can hitting the shadow’s head must have touched a nerve as he slowly mischievously smirked, crossing his arms while watching Macaque sit up from leaning on the wall. The black and white simian rubbed the back of his head where litter seconds earlier had assaulted him.
Macaque’s glare towards the King was heavier than a lead foot on a gas pedal. Wukong noticed this yet approached Macaque with no hesitation. If the golden simian was to go past the bubble of six feet, Macaque felt the need to decimate, and it was getting to be a louder and louder whisper in his head.
“So so jumpy you are. Almost like I caught you manipulating my student or something by the way you're reacting. Which I don’t think I’m a big fan of.” Wukong’s words were vile, his teeth and tongue spitting out balls of fire.
It was times like these the celestial monkey’s words felt like someone was pouring molten magma upon your face. The current feeling of the King’s volcanic pyroclastic flow had Macaque’s tip of his tail thrashing back and forth for a moment.
“Manipulate? Never. You on the other hand would know plenty about that. ” Macaque notices how Wukong’s tail was held high and sturdy as if ready for a fight.
Wukong caught Macaque's eye directed at his own tail. The golden simian’s smug face morphed into a more confident judgment when he noticed Macaque’s tail was completely restless and pushed to its brink of irritation with its continuous twitching and lashing. Macaque could tell from that expression alone that the King was currently tallying little points in his head for all his little ridiculous scheme wins he has for making Macaque’s day a miserable one.
“Right, then just what were you both talking about?” Wukong fired a bullet, his loaded gun of a question was skin slicing to the touch. His face delved into simmering vexation, the corner of his toothy frown twitching.
Macaque refused to allow himself to get hit with more than just a can of soda tonight.
“Better question is, why aren't you talking to him instead, right now?” Macaque hissed, his shotgun of deflected question back would surely leave more damage.
“I asked you a question first.” Wukong shot his second bullet.
“I saw what happened today at that mansion. I saw MK go out of control, Wukong. I wanted to check on the boy. I was there to console, be there for him instead of running off to fight an imaginary problem like you always do.” Macaque stood his ground. For his ground was his truth.
“Really? Not trying to teach him any of your messed up magic, your educational lessons? Cause from a distance that’s what it looked like. He’s strictly forbidden to be using magic right now, so if I hear one word out of the boy learning something like that from ya, or if you're even thinking of stealing his powers again–” Wukong took a step forward and Macaque took a step back.
“I wasn't teaching him anything of magic, you incomprehensible moron. Unlike you I actually know how to control my kaiju, and am very aware of its consequences if you can’t control your kaiju. So OF COURSE I wouldn't be teaching him anything related to his powers of all things right now.” Macaque was fuming, yet his amused smirk remained plastered. Said smirk twitched a tiny bit when Wukong mentioned thinking that the shadow was trying to steal MK’s powers again. Regrettably, that very much stung.
The shadow refrained from going anymore backwards taking a heavy step forward, all weight placed on his hurt leg once again. Macaque held in his cry of pain, swallowing it down. There was to be no looking weak in front of the King. His front didn’t waver as he looked Wukong up and down. If Great Sage was wanting to start a fight, Macaque would make sure the other simian would spill more blood than the other can regenerate. Macaque would play with Wukong’s flesh like playdough if the celestial simian so allowed.
Wukong rose to his own fabricated challenge and took a step forward as well.
“Then what were you saying then? Just talking to him about the weather? Tell me all about it.” Wukong’s short lived hoodwink of a happy smile was dripping with counterfeit essence. The golden simian's ‘supposed to be nice questions’ actually held sharp sarcasm that was fraudulently forged and could cut through the hardest of real genuine hard diamond hearts.
“Yeah, I was just warning him that he’s in for an eventual forecast of a nasty peach rotting smelling storm on its way here. The thunderstorm, so loud, his electrifying voice shatters power lines.” Macaque took another step forward using his hands in a form of emphasis to explain his meaning in a physically struggling, upset manner towards an actual torn powerline that Wukong just caused. The six foot distance was disappearing between the both of them as they continued inching closer in heavy stomps that shook the city.
“If you're referring to me as being as cool as lightning I’ll take that as a compliment.” Wukong relished in turning Macaque’s fueled anger and switching it right around in his favor.
Now the smile dancing on Wukong’s radiant white fangs was a genuine one. The asshole.
Macaque eyes rolled so far backwards within his skull he could see the whole other half of the south continent of Asia. The shade’s hands wrapped and unwrapped around each other behind his back. The black and white monkey’s palms were hidden from sight as they twisted together in extreme displeased anxiety. Fingernails nicked hangnails. Skin was torn backwards. Nail beds now white, with shredded exposed inner keratin. Macaque, unaware of the pain, continues to endure this conversation.
“Always boasting.” Macaque lets his own sarcastic snigg*r slip through the gaps in his teeth as he leans to the side. “What a displeasure to have to deal with this at 12:00 pm at night.”
Macaque didn’t notice at first but Wukong had a peach within his hand that he was now snacking on. By the looks of it, it appeared to be a celestial immortal peach from the golden simian's garden back on Flower Fruit Mountain. Macaque’s ears flicked awkwardly, repulsed at the sound of the King’s loud obnoxious chewing that he was definitely doing on purpose to piss off Macaque.
The King’s bite’s were slow, deliberate. White radiant fangs would puncture the skin first. Peach flesh would be scarfed unhurriedly to the back of the mouth. Molars would finish the job in helping dissolve the meat of the peach. Wukong’s Adam's apple glides up and down with each swallow. One bite after another all the way to the center. Macaque’s hands tightened around each other behind himself. The shadow was ready to rip his ears out of his temple, the sloppy masticating noise alone driving him mad. Macaque felt acrimoniously bitter.
The shadow monkey continued to watch in displeasure as Wukong played with the core of the peach in his mouth. Tongue easily swishing the heart of the pit side to side like it was just the most effortless thing in the world. Macaque awaited for the celestial Majesty to swallow the heart of the peach core whole as he always does. Instead the Sage decides to shove the seed out of his maw spitting the seed out. The core within the peach hopped on the ground and fell through a set of bars of rain drainage pipes. Bastard always eats the seeds..he’s doing this on purpose.
“Careful now, or there will be more than one revolting immortal rat that is in this city.” Macaque let out his signature laugh that he knew for a fact crept under the Monkey King’s skin. As expected of reaction, Wukong’s grimace somehow deepened even more than demonly possible. What a lovely expression. Such a weird form of their own domestic familiarity.
“You’ve stolen so much food from other places, thought the peach pit would be considered a gift to you. Keep you at bay from stealing things from my own garden.” Wukong’s voice echoed within Macaque’s ears.
“Peach pit pity? From you? Such a rare f*cking gift. If you're gonna act like The Old Man of the South Pole, might I suggest you carve the peach pit into an amulet first. Only then will it ward a little ol demon like me out of your precious garden.” Macaque’s claws were digging deep within own palms.
A small stream of blood made its way down the shadow’s thumb, droplets dripping to the face of the concrete below. Macaque’s fists were clenched so roughly that his knuckles were turning a lighter shade.
Macaque’s hair puffed up wildly, Black and white fur popped out in all different angles. The shade’s fists shook. A tail that was previously thrashing stilled. Fangs bared, accompanying the white clashing fur that disturbed the black of night. Wukong was egging Macaque on. If Sage didn’t shut his mouth soon the shadow would surely do the pleasure of doing it for him.
“I’m surprised too, having to help out a loser like you. Such a waste of time. Figured you’d be eating anything right about now–” Wukong waved his left hand Macaque’s direction, completely ignoring what the shade had previously said, while also looking at his right hand’s nails.
They were three feet away from each other now as the golden simian waved his hand around in one irritated fit of movement. Wukong took another step forward, his hand almost brushing Macaque’s nose in the middle of their arguing. Macaque’s hackles on the back of his nape rose at this very moment. Eyes focused to a slowed down version of a delectable target.
Macaque lunged for Wukong’s hand, grabbing it and resting the other’s fingers into his own jaws. The shadow bit down hard on the lighter skinned monkey’s palm.
Pearly white canines punctured past the flesh of Wukong’s hypodermis. Blood spilled onto Macaque’s tongue. The taste was grossly inebriating. The feeling of puncturing Wukong’s fuzzy peach colored skin turned a switch on in Macaque’s deepest depths of his mind. Defective hormones within Macaque’s animal brain telling the shadow monkey that biting down, and biting down this hard was…emancipating.
“What the fu–” Wukong sucked in a huge breath seething. “Did you just BITE ME!?”
Wukong without hesitation yanked his hand back with a low hiss that turned into a simmering snarl. The golden simian’s eyes were complete pin pricks, all focus centered on Macaque’s movement as Sage took his step back. Wukong wanted to start this fight, yet Macaque happily beat him to it as he was the first to shed the blood of the other.
Said celestial monkey did not break eye contact as he continued to clutch his now bleeding palm. Wukong’s tail stiffly agitatedly swung side to side the mere sight of it resembling a metronome pendulum. Wukong was pissed now. Macaque wanted to sing in pure glee. Afterall it was only the Six Eared Macaque that could get The Great Sage Equal to Heaven this riled up.
Once Macaque’s short lived taste for celestial blood was removed, he swayed to the side again, drunk on the vital liquid. Macaque licked his lips. The shade’s tongue could be seen sliding up and down a sharp canine. Sauteed amusem*nt from Macaque’s frying pan boiled and popped oil all over Wukong’s ego. The golden monkey may be fireproof, yet Macaque knows how to inflame the King’s self conceited skin.
“Mmmm,” Macaque licked his chops once again. “You're right, I would eat just about anything. Unfortunately-” The shade spit out Wukong’s blood on the Sage’s pristine shiny boots. “-I don’t like the taste of rotten peaches.”
The black and white shadow monkey smiled. He smiled wide. His sharp front two fangs glistened less in the streetlamp light, stained red. Macaque let out a rotten laugh, as the taste of blood made his stomach lurch in excitement for what Wukong would do next. They pretended to play a game of tag without touching one another. Soon one would give in and they would really be playing a game of tag. It was only a matter of convincing the other to finally play. Said Moth performing little flapping flips in front of the agitated about to pounce cat.
The thrilling game of chase now consists of the cat and the moth.
Before Macaque’s resurrection it used to be all fun in games of the cat and mouse, but after Macaque was brought back he was changed. No longer was he the mouse that stuck his nose only to the ground and hid in the holes of walls. Macaque had Metamorphosized when he rose from the dead.
Macaque had changed. Since the cat from the past had devoured the mouse. In the next life Macaque was a new creature. A moth of change. More fragile yet more free.
A monkey skull adorned the back of the moth’s thorax. Two large purple dots were placed on the light delicate membrane on both sides of the wings. The dots that resembled challenging eyes held the appearance that struck as the look of a poisonous snake. The lepidoptera pattern, meant to scare away predators that were to draw near. A sad reminder that Macaque’s new life was forced to adapt from the last, creating a deimatic cephalopod behavior. The hope was that the startle display of death placed upon the moth’s back would ward away a returning cat that had previously twisted and ripped apart mouse fur.
Now the Death’s Head Hawkmoth squeaks and vibrates its wings ready to take flight to flee whenever the ginger cat draws near. Except for now however. The moth took to circling the cat, purposely attempting to annoy the feline. The moth’s final plan was to unleash its omen of death. Soon the moth planned to land on a wall and spread open its wings fully. The monkey skull’s blinding white would seal one’s official doom if they were to gaze upon it. The eyes on the forewings would come to life. The King Cobra trapped within the wings would find its way of exiting the delicate thin membranes, transforming into reptilian scales.
The black and white monkey swallowed his bile down before it was to crawl further up his larynx. Fueled loathed exhilaration had stomach acid rising and falling in trepidation and anticipation in Macaque’s throat.
A race of adrenaline spiked through the core of Macaque’s stomach when the shadow took notice Wukong was in his fighting stance. Time to play tag. The feeling had the many moths within Macaque’s intestinal lining burning and flapping aimlessly in an attempt to subdue the fire of thrill charring their wings.
Macaque’s snake within his throat that emerged from wings had just struck in physical bite, of a forgotten language that was neatly gift wrapped back to the King in puncture wound blood lettering. Such an unbearably sad reality that Macaque’s fangs were only currently permitted to puncture lean stringy phalanges, instead of a ripe heavily toned throat.
The black and white simian was pushed to the brink. Macaque didn’t have the power to teleport so as of right now Macaque felt cornered. How sickly melodramatic.
Macaque was in no shape to fight, but he’ll be damned to show any feebleness. Macaque would keep fighting the King till the very moment his soul leaves his body. Who even backs out of a little game of tag your it?
When the game of cat and moth got more serious, when life and death so dangerously became a blurred line within the simians fights, two other creatures would always rear their ugly heads from their throats.
Macaque’s Black King Cobra has already come out to play. Starting with a bite.
Containing the snake to be a better person within, be damned. Macaque was tired. Tired from everything that happened just from today. A sliced leg, a burnt back, and annoying children with a celestial stupid simian. If Wukong were to pick a fight tonight Macaque was going to make sure he would be able to bite more than just the flesh of the other’s hand.
After this fight with Wukong, Macaque will be bedridden for days. Or just dead..heh…both sounded awful actually…The thrill of those two idea’s kept Macaque’s inner hypothalamus running hormones to his adrenal glands to release epinephrine. Adrenaline being the only high the shadow really overdoses on these days. It’s what kept his heart beating.
Wukong’s head tilted to the side, mock laughing as he rubbed his own blood between his fingers. His face was in a complete thin line of a scowl. Knuckles could be heard clicking and snapping when Wukong flexed his fists.
“Ohhhh! Look who’s in a bad mood, tonight.” Wukong took a step forward placing his tightening fist behind his back while leaning forward in Macaque’s face.
“So feral he’s stooping so low, he is nipping people on the street, begging for scraps.” Wukong’s reply was thrown, playfully appearing to no longer have the slightest lip curl of anger as sarcasm created cuts to Macaque’s own ego without effort. The Sage hid behind his fraud of a smile. “Even simple sentences of truths arouse his behavior to that of a dog who can’t understand more than just simple commands.” Wukong spat.
Ok. Macaque was no dog. But if a hand was raised to hurt, a bite was expected from the previously abused.
“I’m not the only one who is in a bad mood. What? Your relationship with the kid not doing so well or something?” Macaque’s fluttering moth wings continued to hover and flick Wukong’s feline nose and ears.
Macaque of course could sense the golden simian was getting annoyed by his pestering bug antics. Doesn’t help that the cat has found the moth with a messed up wing. Said moth isn’t going to back out of a fight despite the odds. Even the moth desires the taste of blood after the cobra punctures an artery. Moths can only survive so long without engaging in mud-puddling.
“Don’t you talk about him like you even give a crap about him, Six. I care. I’m his mentor. You're just the person who tried to kill him. Twice. He doesn’t like you. He doesn’t care about you. So you should do us both a favor and stay away from MK.” Wukong looked down at the smaller black and white simian, his simple request burning as the King’s words dripped with magma right onto Macaque.
They were face to face now with how close they were. Both their breaths through their noses mixed in huffs of irritation.
Their height difference always bugged the shadow. Macaque always felt so small under the Sage’s craning tall frame. What's funny is that Wukong never was his original height. The golden monkey was actually the same height as Macaque. Yet Wukong decided he needed to be taller for some reason during some point during the Journey to the West. Wukong glamoured his height and decided to keep it that way.
Macaque shuddered from the cold mixed with Wukong’s body heat he could already feel without touching. Weakness from the shadow’s inability to not react to temperature change proved witness after Macaque broke eye contact to rub up and down his shoulders.
Blood from his self impaling claws clung to Macaque’s sleeves of his ru. Macaque’s body language presented in pretend dismissfullness and submissiveness, yet the fanciful snake within Macaque’s esophagus peaked it’s ugly cynical head out from the shadow’s teeth. The snake ready and trained to bite and leave another mark. The shape of the snake took the form of Macaque’s tongue ready to deliver venom.
“Same could be said for the one who’s bright idea it was to muzzle his successor with tightening fillets. At least killing the boy from going out of control would be more of a mercy. Wouldn’t you think so?” Macaque’s inner moth opened its wings as his snake strikes once again, but this time..this time poisoned words nipped at the other heart's pericardium surface with defined purpose.
Fangs sliced through nothing. Was there even a heart in the golden simian to begin with? Poison did spread into something, nevertheless. Tag your it.
The cat has finally had enough of the pestering moth. These were the times the cat was tired of playing with its food. Said food had yet to be caught.
It was Wukong’s turn to lunge forward, aiming to take Macaque’s body to the ground. Macaque was ready for his affront, backing up and stepping to the side, barely making it out of the way of a full on tackle. The King grunted in frustration, upset at his lack of speed to catch the other. Wukong’s claws just merely missed being able to grip onto Macaque’s ru.
Macaque bent down and picked up the soda can that had hit his head previously and stuck it into his left ru’s pocket. The shadow monkey leered in elation as they began their beloved dance.
“Missed me~” Macaque couldn’t help but taunt.
They made eye contact for a second before they again clashed. This time Macaque was the one on offense. As he aimed a kick straight for Wukong’s face. The celestial simian saw Macaque’s roundhouse from a mile away dodging it with familiar ease.
The two continued avoiding each other's advances until Macaque was able to take advantage of Wukong’s boiling outrage and uncoordinated punches. The shade nicked the other’s shoulder blade with a scratch that made blood rise up to the surface of skin, red sticking to auburn fur.
Wukong placed a palm over his bleeding scratch that was just delivered in quick express shipping from yours truly. The golden Sage looked down at a bloody hand that was previously holding blood from escaping his shoulder. Said celestial monkey aggravatingly whips his head up at Macaque.
Wukong growled, provoked, as the golden simian picked up his pace in fighting after being the first and the second to have injuries within their tumble. Macaque’s breathing was starting to pick up as he was barely able to avoid a punch directly above his stomach that would have obliterated his diaphragm.
No portals means no easy tricks. Macaque was going to have to take to the rooftops. The black and white monkey bounced off the brick walls fueled by the fire of adrenaline. Wukong gave chase. They both clashed in hits, punches, kicks, and scratches on the way to the closest rooftop. Macaque had a plan to lose Wukong through the maze of the city now that he could see from above.
The shadow was close to landing with stability, inevitably Macaque should have known there would be a moment that his left leg would give out at some point. As soon as the black and white simian’s foot made contact with the roof, his leg bent at an unstable angle, forcing Macaque to trip and skid across the top of the building. The shadow let out a small screech that echoed through his own ears. Macaque clutched his hurt leg on the ground and seethed.
The shadow monkey narrowly had the time to react to a ginger blur that now is the one to take advantage of the other’s weakness. Macaque sat up only to be roughly gripped, picked up by his scarf and thrown into a large air vent. The boisterous sound of the shadow monkey denting metal could be heard throughout the entire city.
Macaque had collided with the silver material hitting his blistered singed open nerve to pain back. The shadow let out a loud shout of teeth grinding pain, eyes scrunched shut as he began to attempt to scramble himself back up again.
“Pretty sad. Even your successor has a stronger throw.” Macaque hissed through grated mashing molars.
Before Macaque could successfully regroup himself, the shadow could feel the knuckles of a single hand dig into the clothing and fur of his nape, lifting him off the ground again. It was less than a mere second before Macaque could feel his weight be spun and directed into another throw. This time the shadow was thrown much harder, his weight skidded and bounced off the roof's surface. Macaque’s body was so heavily tossed his form almost flung completely off the rooftop. The shadow’s shoulder collided with part of the edge of the roof, bricks and concrete flown out of place littering the street below.
Macaque latched onto the remaining parts of the partly demolished ledge with an arm, the rest of himself dangling over the edge of the building’s high drop. The shadow was clinging on for dear life. Without being able to portal, Macaque surely had himself in a not so good situation.
“‘ShOw Me ThE rEaL sUn WuKoNg.’’” Wukong imitated Macaque’s voice in a whiny tone that the shadow had said when Macaque and Wukong had their first physical fight in front of MK. “I’ll show YOU.”
Wukong slowly inches closer, his feet heavily uncalculated as he stomps over. Fury bubbled within his irises, a permanent lip snarl was starting to make residence just for the shadow. Must be fun being the one blowing off steam while the other is the punching bag. Macaque laughed to himself before the laugh slowly died within his throat.
“Still waiting for that actually.” Macaque hummed an elevator waiting tune.
Macaque opened his eyes to witness another lash the King was to deliver to him. A knuckle sandwich aimed directly for Macaque’s face. The shadow monkey’s smirk cascaded his mug as he anticipated nothing less from his enemy that had the power to kill you so easily a second time. It was both euphoric, yet heavily intoxicating.
Inches before a fist collided with Macaque’s nose, the shade unraveled his arm from the ledge, and fell. Despite the need to keep falling and allowing the shadow’s figure to collide in a mess of colorful red on the concrete ground, Macaque’s teeth grinded against the mere thought. Halfway through the air, Macaque shapeshifted into his infamous bird. Luckily this form of magic wasn’t a problem like his current shadow magic was.
The large wingspan of Macaque’s Bearded Vulture transformation took flight. The shadow disappeared from Wukong’s view, weaving through alleys staying below to not easily be spotted.
An Imperial Eagle came from above sinking claws straight into the shadow vulture's feathers. Or actually lack of feathers where his singed back only bore boiled avian integument. Just as fast as the claws sunk in they retreated.
Macaque was preparing for the King to bring him to the ground, yet the sudden leave caught Macaque off guard. Craning his neck up, the black, white, and red scavenger looked to see where the golden bird of prey could have flown off too. That was a huge mistake when Macaque’s right wing collided with a building’s side. Glass from the skyscraper that the shade hit rained down, glittering in the town's illuminated light pollution.
Thankfully the fall was cushioned…cause Macaque fell right into a half full dumpster. How humiliating. The smell alone had Macaque reeling.
Wukong landed beside the dumpster in a poof of smoke turning back into his original form.
“Not gonna get up? Need a break already? We’ve barely even started! Though to be honest I think you should stay in there since it’s where you belong.” Wukong awaited for Macaque to get out of the trash.
Rolling his shoulders back and swinging an arm in the air, Wukong tested the flexibility of his right socket joint. The golden simian, dynamically stretched. The auburn monkey did some arm swings while practicing elasticity and plasticity in ballistic movement. Continuous taunts from the king kept hitting Macaque straight in his ego.
Macaque wanted to end it all. co*cky bastard was enjoying beating his ass.
“A break and a peach pit. I couldn’t be more thankful.” Macaque crawled his way to the front metal lining of the dumpster, just barely peeking up above the rim to see the ready to fight other simian.
“Get up. Get out of your new house. I’m not through with you yet. What, too chicken to continue? Cat got your tongue??” Wukong crossed his arms and impatiently tapped his foot.
Phoenix feathers could be seen rising up from the dumpster. Upon Macaque’s head was Wukong’s stolen headpiece. The shade teasingly ran a finger through one of the feathers as his other arm laid upon the dumpster’s rim. Macaque didn’t have his one feather headpiece on right now so the replacement was going to have to do. Macaque devilishly smirked.
“You could say that I appear to look more like a chicken with this on don’t you think?” Macaque snickered as he swayed the headpiece around showing off his steal.
“When did you—“ Wukong tapped the top of his head to indeed notice that his phoenix feather headpiece was taken. “Oh you little—“
“Little charity case? I know I know. Again I appreciate the gift. But honestly, this headpiece smells and looks just as bad as your food offering.” Macaque relished in Wukong’s lack of utterance.
There’s that expression Macaque likes to see. That pinched brow, gum lifted, teeth visible, twitching eyelid. Macaque’s inner moths were scorching. Dare say Macaque would say that the look even looks cute..cute if Macaque didn’t want to twist his claws into the golden celestial’s face and rip it apart piece by piece.
“Oh THAT’S IT.” Wukong roared.
Again Macaque found himself with the King jumping straight for him. Instead of backing off this time however the black and white simian met him head on. With higher ground and gravity’s momentum, Macaque tackled the auburn monkey. Both landed on the ground in a wrestling sprawl.
Macaque gained the upper hand as he was able to flip the Monkey King on his stomach. Securing the golden simian’s right arm behind his back, Macaque used his body weight to keep the other down while keeping the other’s arm secured in the awkward uncomfortable position.
The shadow’s legs kept the other’s legs pinned to the ground. Macaque wouldn’t be able to hold onto Wukong for long since his skinner frame could easily be bucked off, but that didn’t stop the shade from leaning down and whispering in the golden monkey’s ear.
“Award winning chicken that avoids all his problems including his student, goes to the one and only King~” Macaque not at all nicely placed back on the phoenix feather headpiece on Wukong’s head, like it was a crown of honor.
Wukong writhed beneath Macaque, fits of grunts and growls muffled in the concrete were complete music to the shade’s ears. This was always the shadow’s favorite position over the other after all. The King with his face to the floor and the ex warrior now Jester laughing above. Palm fisting auburn fur of the ginger’s head, and claws nicking scalp, assisting in grinding the Majesty’s head face down.
Macaque tightened his grip on Wukong’s arm and attempted to keep firm position over Wukong’s legs, yet it was no use keeping a hold of the other for much longer. A ginger tail snuck its way past Macaque’s field of vision and wrapped around the shadow’s left leg. Said tail yanked hard. This both caught Macaque off guard and off balance. A shriek erupted from Macaque’s throat, pain shot through the shadow.
Wukong flipped their positions as they wrestled for fighting dominance. The King now had the Jester face down upon the concrete. Unlike Macaque just holding Wukong’s one arm behind his back, the golden simian secured the other’s same arm and Wukong placed a knee right between Macaque’s shoulder blades.
Increased height gave the celestial advantage over Macaque, being long enough to be able to rest a knee on the other’s back and have another leg holding Macaque’s hamstrings in place without effort. Pain couldn’t even begin to describe the weight of Wukong’s knee on Macaque’s open nerved spine.
Wukong’s weight alone was suffocating; much heavier in bulky muscle and mass than the skinnier lean ex warrior underneath the King.
Macaque attempted to pull the same exact tail trick Wukong had done only for it to fail. An auburn tail found Macaque’s wandering tail and twisted around it like a python. The black and white shadow’s tail wrestled with the golden tail. The Sage’s appendage now held Macaque’s tail tightly in place, no longer allowing any means for escape.
The shadow’s breath deepened in small fits of repressed anger. Pain of Wukong’s knee digging straight into Macaque’s freshly burnt back had Macaque thrashing widely. However in exertion to thrash, it only made the affliction worse.
Macaque normally wouldn’t give the Sage even one lick of satisfaction of letting the other know he’s in pain, but as of right now the shade’s sensitive nerves were too uncomfortable for his body to ignore.
Not only were Macaque’s trapezius muscles squirming under Wukong’s heavy pressure, but the shade’s left leg was a complete bundle of oppositely fondled destroyed nerves all on its own. Macaque attempted to keep it together but his breathing didn’t slow down.
“Stop bringing up MK.” Wukong’s grip fastened, his knee digging deeper into Macaque’s shoulder blades. The celestial’s warm breath crawled down Macaque’s neck.
Macaque grunted, gasped and whined…eyes darted everywhere looking for means of escape.
Pathetic. If Macaque wasn’t in such physical distress he would have broken free by now. He would have left. He would have gotten away like he always managed to do…
Any movement resulted in some form of agony, so Macaque stilled. Arms unmoving, legs resting, tail no longer thrashing in the other’s for freedom, and cheek lowered to the cold concrete floor. The shadow’s only agenda now was to attempt to control his ragged breathing.
Macaque couldn’t see Wukong’s face to gauge reaction, but the shadow was utterly bemused at the feeling of the knee burrowing into his back being lifted off. A heavy sigh without f*cking consent left Macaque’s lungs at the feeling of no longer having weight dance on his exposed nerves of his burnt back.
Wukong mumbled soft yet hard to articulate words under his breath. Macaque could feel Wukong above him maneuvering his crooked phoenix feather headpiece.
“What was that? You're gonna have to speak up.” Macaque gritted his teeth mumbling loudly into the concrete. The shadow heard exactly what he said.
“I know you can hear me, Six.” Wukong snarled, crushing Macaque’s wrist behind the shadow’s back with a heavier grip.
With Wukong’s knee no longer digging into the crevice of Macaque’s back the shade’s breathing began to slow and the unbearable pain from before was beginning to also slow its excruciating progression. The tightening on his arm and the beginning pin prick of blood loss from his tail was starting to get annoying nonetheless. If the other simian were to not place their knee back onto the shadow’s back then Macaque could think of an escape plan.
The shadow could again feel Wukong’s hot breath trickle down the back of his neck as he continued to lay still. The other continued to breathe on him, lungs still wanting to cling to oxygen from their previous aerobic tussle.
Macaque could feel Wukong’s eyes burning holes in the back of his head. Macaque swallowed a lump in his throat. The shadow did not like the position he found himself in. This brief pause in this situation had Macaque’s inner moths incinerated in his bowels.
The warmth of the auburn simian radiated in waves. Oddly as comforting as the ravaging energy of Chernobyl’s elephant foot. Curiosity lures even the ones who know of its deadly radiation, yet allow themselves to get close with the possible consequence of an eventual slow gradual death. The shadow tried to fight off the meddlesomeness, but the closer he got to uranium covered golden snub nosed fur, the sooner Macaque sealed his own fate. Macaque felt sick, he was sick, perhaps sick in the head. Radioactive decay, already beginning to shred every single cell.
“I said…I didn’t know what to DO. There. Happy!?” Wukong basically shouted venting his frustration.
The prick even grabbed the back of Macaque’s head, black and white fur scrunched in nails that could make the shadow’s scalp bleed if the other dug in deeper. Macaque’s face was now the one being smashed into the concrete.
Macaque’s glamoured ears flexed backwards at the now regretful need for the golden Sage’s now louder same response.
“OK. Alright that’s loud enough, gods.” Macaque moved his right cheek to the side so he was no longer face down, and blew some threads of his own short hippie hair out of his face. “….You know you can still talk to him. He’s not going anywhere..well…anywhere outside the city. Not like you’d have anything wise to say.” Macaque suggested and insulted as he flexed his fingers in his currently trapped hand. Play nice..distract..escape.
“He was going to continue going through the city he-…why am I even telling you this??” Wukong administered his weight right back on Macaque’s back with his knee again in strife.
The shadow loudly grunted in unpleasant tenderness. Wukong paused above the other, before once again Macaque felt himself utter a breath of relief when Wukong lifted his knee off the shadow’s back. Macaque itched to turn the tables on the sage.
Fingers lightly ghosted Macaque’s back making shadow twitch in surprise.
“You're hurt.” Wukong stated like it was a death sentence and Macaque was the one guilty as charged and the celestial was the judge.
“.....” Macaque had nothing to say, almost afraid to speak.
“Oh you went silent. That means I’m right.” Wukong mocked from above, taunting a bit half hearted.
“I don’t know what you're talking about.” Macaque tried to level his breathing again, too self conscious about the way that Wukong may very well be listening to how he was irregularly wheezing.
“Come on bud. Look at you. Someone’s run you for your money tonight, and it wasn’t entirely me. I barely touched your back with my eagle talons. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I care to ask since I don’t care what you do. Figured those ‘Schemes’ of yours would get you in some sort of trouble one day.” Wukong dismissed Macaque like he was lower than a bug.
Macaque internally foamed at the mouth.
“Gods, your hair’s long. Ever heard of a local barber before??” Wukong’s fingers were trapped in Macaque’s black and white knots of his fur.
Macaque’s breathing stilled. So the King noticed the shadow’s hurt? Great.
Wukong’s warm left palm loosened over the grip of Macaque’s head. Bundled bits of the shade’s hair fell from the Sage’s fist covering more over Macaque’s eyes. Being blinded by his own hair and having the unwillingness to continue fighting at 12:00 pm at night was not on Macaque’s thought to be future bingo card. And of course Wukong had to comment on his overgrown fur. Macaque whispered a “f*ck you” under his breath.
Macaque remained quiet. He refused to answer Wukong’s questions or provide commentary.
“You're really hurt aren't you?” Wukong's voice was severely stern.
How incredibly condescending.
A distant memory resurfaced within Macaque’s mind…
….
“You're hurt aren’t you???” Wukong basically squealed in sadness, tears coming to his eyes.
“I’m finnnne Wukong. Stop hovering.” Macaque was sitting down on the rich soil of Flower Fruit Mountain, his side against a supporting tree truck.
The shade tried to keep his voice steady but he was still quite upset from what just happened. The shadow had run away to a random part of the forest in order for some much needed alone time after what had occurred only to be followed by a golden monkey shaped leech.
“You're not fine…look I saw you freak out. I saw what happened. I can't just ignore that bud…” Wukong came from behind the black shadow monkey, sitting behind him.
The golden monkey slowly wrapped his arms from behind the other. Wukong’s stomach was flush with Macaque’s back, his legs laying to the side of the shade’s legs. Hands were clasped around the shade’s midsection, only to be shortly released to rub gently up and down Macaque’s sides in a close reassuring hug. Macaque’s closest friend’s chin found its way into the crook of the shadow’s black furred neck.
Greedily with care, Wukong nuzzled the back of the shade’s black fluffy nape, trying to get a positive reaction out of the other. Macaque…giggled. Wukong’s nose made the shadow’s fur itch. A laugh bubbles its way out of the previously upset black pelted monkey.
“Stop it Peaches! You know I’m ticklish, you barbarian.” Macaque squirmed but then relaxed in Wukong’s hold, the warmth of the other an incredibly stable anchor of solace.
“I didn’t mean…to force you to do something you were uncomfortable with..back there. An-and that’s exactly what I had you do! That’s all on me.” Wukong’s voice was muffled in Macaque’s fur, his face hidden from the shadow’s view.
“I told you I don’t like using my Kaiju form. Yet you refused to listen. I could have gotten both of us killed…It’s too unstable. I can’t control it.” Macaque pondered the situation over and over in his head. Why would Wukong trick Macaque like that?
“That wolf demon almost had you..and he got away too..” Macaque whispered his voice barely heard.
Wukong pulled his nose out of the crook of the shadow’s pitch black fur to lightly nudge the other’s cheek from behind. “I’m invincible, remember? Nothing’s ever going to happen to me. I was only trying…I just wanted to push you to your fullest potential. You have so much more strength than you realize, Mango.” The golden monkey gently squeezed a little tighter around Macaque’s skinnier frame.
“I wouldn’t say that…and just because you have immortality doesn’t mean you can’t die. Wolf woulda ripped your head clean off and then it would have been over.” Macaque sucked in a breath. His palms rested over Wukong’s constricting arms. “I was worried..” The shadow’s breath hitched, a tight feeling of emotion tore through Macaque’s throat in stifle.
“Don’t be. I’ll never try to trick you into using your Kaiju ever again. Promise…And-I’ll never fake my death and scareyouhalftodeath..” Wukong out of nowhere noogied Macaque’s head like it was his final mission left on the planet.
The pitch black shadow writhed in Wukong’s hold. More giggles erupted from Macaque’s lips in pure guffaw. The golden snub nosed monkey refused to let go of his squirming victim as he made sure the hair upon the shadow’s head was a complete mess. Macaque did everything he could to get out of the other’s hold as he pinched golden fur and even tried to stand up only for his friend to drag him to the ground in a heap of tussling tittering monkey pile.
Macaque had enough of this embarrassing harassment so turning the tables was but a necessary move. Said shadow wrestled his way to the upper hand, able to get the other flat on his stomach. One hand forced the golden monkey’s head to the ground and the other hand held one of Wukong’s arms behind his back. Pitch black legs were stationed over auburn legs holding them in place. Macaque’s tail affectionately found its way, lightly wrapping around Wukong’s tail.
Wukong let out a humph of exaggeration as he now was the one pinned to the ground, tables officially tossed. The golden monkey’s tail was trapped within Macaque’s yet it gave a reassuring squeeze back. Both intertwining into half a spiral.
The ginger’s yellow bonnet was plucked clean off his head and placed on a head of black fur. Macaque gave a reassuring smush on the top of his head to make sure Wukong’s stolen hat would not fall off.
“A promise huh? Let's see if you can keep it this time.” Macaque purred above him in suggestive sarcasm.
“What are you talking about? I always keep my promises!” Wukong defended himself, his voice far from convincing, muffled in the dirt.
“Uh huh.” Macaque lightly ruffled Wukong’s fur on his head in justified revenge. Now they both looked worse than cubs on the mountain who don’t groom themselves, hair sticking out in odd angles.
A toothy grin widened upon Macaque’s face.
Macaque then got off the golden monkey, allowing the other simian to sit back up.
Wukong went quiet in front of Macaque, the black pelted monkey sensed a shift in mood. Wukong was never quiet.
“You know you're right..what you said before.” Wukong’s voice was level with a hint of certainty.
“Me not being sure about my Kaiju?” Macaque whispered.
“No..no. My uhh..problem.” Wukong whispered back.
“What problem?” Macaque turned his head to look at the other.
Wukong looked away from Macaque's face hidden in dark silhouette.
“My immortality problem. Your right I can still die even with my teachings..I need to find a way to never die so I can protect you and the kingdom to my fullest extent.” Wukong looked off to the distance where the waves of the ocean crashed on the sandy banks.
“How will you do that?” Macaque seriously questioned.
“I don’t know yet..but I also promise to get stronger.” Wukong let out a sigh and then his mood returned back to the way it was before, now hiding behind that starting to be, unrealistic genuine smile.
Macaque grabbed the stolen bonnet on top of his head and threw it directly in Wukong’s face, blinding the ginger.
A toothy grin slowly morphed into a frown on Macaque’s face when Wukong was momentarily blinded by his own bonnet. The shadow was beginning to not like that fraud of a look beginning to become permanently stuck on his friend’s lips.
….
Macaque’s infamous twitching scowl continued to crawl its way further down Macaque's maw.
One of Wukong’s finger’s was shortly trapped within the shade’s hair only to be forcefully yanked out, the Sage’s hand now released from the other’s scalp. Black and white fur clung to golden claws. Macaque held in his inner seething as his body almost jerked from having his fur pulled out.
“I think the better question is if you're going to get off of me.” Macaque growled ready for the other to make up his mind of the shadow’s current predicament.
“Will do..since you look like you're about to keel over. But before I leave, I gotta remind you of something first.” Wukong leaned back over Macaque again. Words that held knives within teeth and a sharp tongue ready to litter Macaque’s back in numerous cuts.
Macaque was all ears.
“You're going to stay away from MK and everyone else.” Wukong’s voice was so commanding it could scare the gods who were near.
Macaque was no god, but he most definitely didn’t like that tone. Shivers racked through the black and white monkey. Shudders of pure thrilling excitement. Macaque lifted his head since it was no longer pressed into the concrete. Attempting to turn all the way around, the shadow can just barely see Wukong above. Macaque opens his mouth with a sinister shaky smile.
“Or what? Gonna promise yourself to kill me again? Since you're so good at keeping promises to yourself and not others?” It was Macaque’s final snake strike. Both exhilarating yet potentially lethal to be biting an old fresh wound of your murderer. Yet the sinking teeth into the mind of your greatest enemy tasted like the land of milk and honey.
The shadow monkey looked away after he delivered his physiological snap of fangs.
Sometimes..Macaque wanted.. no needed Wukong’s fabricated manic anger to wash over him like a bucket of stomach acid.
Hydrochloric acidic coating would wrap around Macaque’s fur. The mixture of pepsinogen and gastric juice would create a wonderful concoction. The protein-splitting enzyme pepsin would no longer be a rapid surprise but a pleasant known feeling after being chewed, swallowed, and thrown up onto the ground.
Being in the belly of the beast was beginning to become a common occurrence with Macaque’s…not so healthy mindset.
The longer the Six Eared Macaque was around Sun Wukong, the more unsettling Macaque’s impulsive desires became. At first when Macaque was forced to confront the King and his subjects because of the Lady Bone Demon; cold need for revenge came to the surface.
At that point, all that mattered to Macaque before he was to be placed in the eventual clutches of the LBD, was to live out his fantasy. The surreal compelling requirement for the exiled warrior to come back to his kingdom and kill the King. Macaque went after the King’s subjects first. Just like before his resurrection.
Over time the want of going after Wukong’s new family was a definite regret. But deep down..Macaque wishes to not take it back if it meant just seeing even an inch of the disastrous tornado of a reaction from the celestial golden King.
Afterall Macaque’s newest desire around the other was to set off the King’s aflamed brimming wrath. The need to arouse Sun Wukong’s hidden emotions was a dangerous game of hangman. Each letter meant to spell the word “absolution” Macaque purposely avoids. More and more the wrong letters end up fabricating Macaque’s future lynching.
Macaque couldn’t help it. Playing games with the King was just such a revivifying experience.
Wukong didn’t even show a sliver of what could come up his throat since Macaque came back to life. Burrowed deep within the pits of Wukong’s belly was a sleeping Mongoose. The creature’s teeth white as a pit of red ink, canines constantly covered in digestive pepsin.
Macaque’s Snake that was more than just a mere viper within his own bowels would quake with trepidation. Scales would tremble when the mongoose’s eyes within Wukong would pop open. The black king cobra that escapes from the shadow’s maw constantly teases, picks, and plucks at the sleeping mongoose. A majority of the time the venom of Macaque’s snake doesn’t even stir the other inner creature.
The cat and moth would hide when irreversible action was about to take place between the two monkeys. King Cobra and Mongoose would both find each other and fight each other to the death.
In the past the mongoose was successful in ripping apart and devouring the king cobra. The serpent coming back to life a second time does not fear death. Venom ten times more lethal.
As of now Macaque’s snake would sometimes pester the mongoose within. This was one of those times.
The black cobra would open its scaly white hypnotizing hood and dance around the mongoose. When the fuzzy carnivore would awaken, the cobra tells itself using Macaque’s tongue that it would be ready to fight the other.
Said shadow’s inner snake wanted to fight and win against the mongoose just as much as Macaque wished to be killed once again by the thrashing consistency of the warm blooded animal.
Cold blooded vs warm blooded.
Macaque wanted his king cobra to bite down into the mongoose’s eyes. Having the snake coil around the resilient creature wrapping it up tight. Said king cobra would savor every second of the mongoose’s tripping to keep up, windpipe. The larynx of the warm blooded creature would asphyxiate. Last attempts of air flowing through the voice box would create a sound relating to disintegrating and fading epiphany. Each breath slower than the last as the black snake continues to endlessly twist. Death would result in half lidded shut, fiery red orange sclera, with glazed over pupils that held the story of an ouroboros cycle.
Macaque wanted to feel the sensation of Wukong’s inner Mongoose to grab onto his snake’s neck and shake it. A glistening pepsin fang would come close to sinking into the black cobra’s heart but not yet puncturing it. After one shake, not yet strong enough to kill, the fuzzy carnivore would unclasp its jaws and watch with ease as the snake got right back up to continue its attack. Once the black cobra was to get close enough, the mongoose would mercilessly latch his jaws back over the other’s neck and thrash. Shuttered gurgly wheezing is the only noise that can escape the snake's throat. The snake’s tongue would touch the air. A serpent’s main sense of surroundings becomes clear when a snake’s taste buds can describe the color of molecules. Said color tasted red, the reptile’s own vibrant red. Each attack slower than the last, the snake would begin to tire. Each shake and amount of blood lost would leave the snake to begin to still. Death would result in non blinking milky dented eye caps that held the story of an ouroboros cycle.
Macaque craved, no, needed both at once. But…that is but a mere pipe dream.
The shadow waited for the baited opportunity to pinch the mongoose awake, yet unfortunately there was no movement above the black and white simian. Macaque dared a peak. His eyes constricted a small fraction at Wukong’s…expression.
The Great Sage Equal to Heaven looked…hesitant, unsure, shaken. It was…new. Such a raw open vulnerable..almost disconnected reflection in his eyes.
It was close to the look Wukong had given him when Macaque had unintentionally yet with foreseeable planning tried to take the rings of the Samadhi Fire. The mongoose had awakened then, within the other, and Macaque was regretfully ready to meet one half of his predestined reverie fate when the snake eating creature reared its ugly head back to strike an already taken from before serpent eye.
As of now the mongoose within Wukong cowered away in its sleep.
The serpent was put off guard at the mongoose’s unusual unwaking behavior. Wukong’s body language spoke heavy volumes that gave Macaque pause.
The shadow’s snake didn’t poke the mongoose awake. Macaque poked at Wukong’s non-existent heartstrings. Yanked them.
Macaque messed up in other words. Both reptile and mammal both retreated back in their throats. Even the cat and moth didn’t want to come out and play. All that remained was Macaque and Wukong. Just two tired, exhausted from the world immortal monkeys.
“Six….” Wukong’s voice sounded gutted and shaky.
Ringing could be heard to the main sidewalk outside the alley…clicking of shoes making its way down the street. Loud footsteps.
Wukong and Macaque froze in tandem. Both were alerted by footsteps at the same time. Both were so distracted from each other they didn’t even hear said person until they were almost among their side alley. Macaque was anticipating hopeful death, but what he wasn’t anticipating was for himself to be yanked up by his scarf and clutched tightly, his back smushed into a golden simian’s chest.
The Sage grabbed and yanked Macaque close to him, scrambling the both of them behind the dumpster’s side. They were now out of the view of the alley’s exit. Yet with the consequence of both having to scrunch together close enough so a tail or a leg couldn’t be seen, was unbearable.
Macaque’s breath hitched loudly as his charred back felt like it was scraping against a cheese grater. Exposed burnt skin under the shadow’s ru was roughly pressed and rubbed against the celestial’s gold chest plate. Wukong’s left hand covered itself over Macaque’s mouth, so the black and white simian wouldn't be able to blurt a single peep. The warm hand that smelled of leftover guts of the previous existing peach the Sage ate was staining Macaque’s inner olfactory bulb with the ingraining gross scent.
Part of the shade’s sense of smell was also overpowered by Macaque’s previous bite mark on the other, where blood still leaked from, beginning to coat the black and white monkey’s muzzle.
Macaque wanted to bite the peach smelling hand for a second time. Needing to kill this asshole for daring to hold the shadow this close like this over someone walking down the sidewalk, was a must. The thought only crossed his currently hazy exhausted mind, until the sound of the mystery person’s footsteps were extremely distinct.
It was Mei walking down the sidewalk.
“HMM-FM-FPP—” Macaque wasn’t particularly saying any words that could be heard through Wukong’s hand, but that wasn’t going to stop him. Not that the shadow wanted Mei’s attention, but being this close to his pain in the ass of an enemy..!? This closeness only made Macaque want to go completely feral.
“Be quiet..!!” Wukong shushed the black and white monkey within his grasp.
Other than aggressively wanting to mutilate Wukong right now, Macaque couldn’t believe he didn’t hear Mei coming sooner than Wukong did. With Macaque now resting from an epinephrine high, thick appearing fog started to over take Macaque’s motor controls and hearing.
Ringing from a phone could be heard.
“Please don’t pick up so I can leave a message..” Mei sniffled as she stopped right outside the alley that Macaque and Wukong were hiding in. Every few seconds she would continue to suck back in running snot within her nose and wipe away stray tears with her green jacket sleeves.
Ringing a few more times echoed throughout the alley. Macaque’s eyes widened when he almost didn’t notice that something was vibrating from one of his right pocket. The shadow reeled in shock at the fact that he did indeed stuff his new phone Mei gave him within his ru’s garment. There was no way Wukong didn’t notice-
Ringing of her phone went straight to voicemail.
“Oh thank god..” Mei cleared her throat right before the message machine beeped.
“Heeeyy!! This is Mei the uh-uh..dragon girl. I called to tell you I probably won’t be making it tomorrow night for our training…um I’m down for the next day after, tho. Let's meet Thursday night for practice..okie–talktoyoulaterbyyyeeee-!” Mei hung up incredibly fast and sighed in complete relief.
The message was for KOK.
A very light ding after the message was delivered could be heard from Macaque’s phone. Macaque prayed to whichever god would listen that Mei didn’t hear his phone. Luckily for the shadow, the girl didn’t even pause or turn her head as she looked to be texting someone else right after she had left her message.
Macaque felt movement stir in Wukong’s right arm that was around the shade’s gut. The golden sage was trying to sneak his hand into the shadow’s ru pocket where his phone was. Oh hell no that’s not happening.
Immediately the black and white monkey began relentlessly squirming in Wukong’s hold. With each shift of the shade’s wiggly body, Wukong was having a hard time being able to accomplish much in retrieving the previously vibrating phone. The shadow held a strong grip on the golden monkey’s right hand averting the other’s wandering claws.
Wukong hammered down on his clutch around the other’s mouth when Macaque began muffling extremely pissed off fits of grunts under the Sage’s sweaty palm. Macaque’s body continued to thresh and thrash. Back continuously bucking against Wukong’s stomach, and legs continuously kicking for freedom of said constricting hold.
Even their tails fought as they continuously grappled, twisted, whipped, and jerked around each other. The golden monkey was successful in getting his hand in the shade’s ru pocket. Only immediately after this act of atrocity did Macaque bite fully down on Wukong’s hand.
Blood pooled in Macaque’s mouth dripping down his throat and out the sides of his lips. Wukong held in a strong yelp as he attempted to jerk his hand away only for the other feral monkey to have a deeply locked grip on his flesh.
Wukong’s last resort to getting the other to let go was having his claws dig into Macaque’s cheek. The shadow panicked since the golden monkey’s damn claws digging into his face were incredibly close to poking into his right eye. Yet the black and white simian refused to let go, determined.
Before Wukong had been bitten, he previously had a grip upon the phone within the other’s pocket. In the chaos after being bit, the cell had flung out of said pocket and landed outside the dumpster’s range of hidden blindspot. The clattering of the phone was loud as the phone falling from the two simians’ struggle made the girl outside the alley jump out of her skin.
Before Mei could turn her head to look down the alley both Macaque and Wukong’s tail lunged at the black rectangle. Somehow in perfect brain cell sharing teamwork, both their tails grabbed the cellular device and yanked the phone back to the hidden side of the dumpster.
Mei looked into a bare, not a sign of life alley, as she tried to catch what she heard with her eyes only to not see anything.
“Well that was straaannggee…” Mei narrowed her eyes down the dark alley with shadows within shadows. “Welp not questioning that.”
Before any of the simians in the alley behind the dumpster could blink, Mei whistled loudly for her bike to spawn out of thin air as if on beck and call. Macaque’s glamoured ears flicked fully backwards brushing against the side of Wukong’s cheek; the high pitch sound actually hurt his ears.
Said golden simian comically tilted his head away with a sudden jerk forgetting about the glamoured six ear’s existence. Macaque would have laughed at the stupidly awkward gesture of the King forgetting about his basically invisible extra set of pointy satellite dishes, if his mouth still wasn’t full of palm.
Whirling out of nowhere Mei’s white and green bike roared to life and did some ridiculous stunt by jumping off a building on autopilot, landing right in front of the dragon girl. Within another blink, Mei hopped on her bike and was gone as the sound of her motorcycle echo slowly dissipated.
Both Macaque and Wukong had both their heads comically tilted out from behind the dumpster to make sure no one was still there. Both then leaned backwards against the brick wall again as they both collapsed in a heap of relief.
“Let GO of my hand, Six.” Wukong’s growl vibrated behind Macaque’s left set of twitching glamoured 3 ears.
“You-lemmff-mmf-go of myffm—phone first.” Macaque had a hard time speaking with bloody palm in his mouth, but it was basically assumed that Wukong got the message.
Of course it was expected that if the King wanted something he would get it.
Against Macaque’s wishes the auburn monkey pulled the phone straight out of the shadow’s tail with a tuggle war tail tug. The black and white pelted monkey wasn't fast enough to get the phone back with his own tail as Wukong’s own appendage disappeared behind him.
Dammit Macaque just got this new phone. Now it was in the hands of the world's most infamous thief. Or as Wukong likes to call himself, ‘worlds infamous borrower’. Since the hypocrite thinks he’s all purified and celestial now in Buddhahood by completing a little 14 year journey.
Macaque has had about enough of being restrained by this asshole. With the other distracted trying to keep the shade’s phone far out of his clutches, an opportunity arose where Wukong’s grip around his gut was loose.
Swiveling swiftly, Macaque elbowed Wukong directly in the stomach roughly. This caught Wukong so much off guard he let out a wheezed yelp as his chin collided roughly with Macaque’s left shoulder from the sudden pain.
The phone slipped from Wukong’s grip of tail, hitting the back of the brick wall behind them before ricocheting and clattering into the middle of the alley a few feet in front of the both of them. Macaque released Wukong’s hand from his jaws, immediately lurching forward, basically crawling to be able to grab his now in sight phone.
Said King behind him wasn’t deterred just yet when Macaque felt a hand grip his ankle and pull the black and white simian backwards. Jumping over the shadow Wukong was also in heavy pursuit to get the phone back.
It was a continuous fight to see who could reach the black rectangle first. Whether it was a monkey grabbing an ankle, tail, arm, or anything to grasp the cell.
Eventually Wukong was successful in using brute force to shove Macaque just enough to the side before being able to snatch the phone in his not bloody hand. They both made no moves further as they both stilled in breathless exhaustion.
Wukong, now fully stood up and was able to get a few hops away from the other, now observing the rectangular device. The phone automatically turned on showing it’s current message in its screens notifications bar.
“One missed call. I wonder who that could be.” Wukong coldly spoke as he looked from the phone to Macaque with a chilling glare.
“Kindly give that back to me before I make sure your other hand matches your left hand.” Macaque’s threat was weak at best. Wukong unfortunately knew that Macaque’s current condition wasn’t at a full 100%. Wouldn’t stop the shadow from getting his phone back though.
This circ*mstance was a sore situation but also a lucky one. Macaque was internally sighing in relief that Mei didn’t refer to the black and white monkey as his persona.
If Kage Onna Kitsune was mentioned Macaque would have been f*cked. Wukong sure would have ripped the shade a new one if the King was to find out the truth of Macaque’s double life. It was bad enough the Monkey King was beating his ass just because the snub nosed monkey wanted to let out some ‘jealous that Macaque was getting along with his successor better’ upset steam.
“I don’t know. Looks pretty shiny and new. I think I’ll hold onto it.” Wukong’s smirk widened as he took in Macaque’s completely upset look.
Macaque was gonna kill this bastard he really was.
“Wouldn’t want you contacting someone I told you not to talk to. So I think I’m just gonna keep this.” Wukong flipped the phone in the air in a taunting manner.
Macaque was tired.
Macaque wanted to tear out Wukong’s throat.
Because of course the ex-warrior would always succumb to Wukong’s jeers, not having an inch of self control when the other would once again try to take advantage of the shadow’s life when he best saw fit.
Macaque shot forward, his body disappearing into shadow form. Between the time of half a second the black and white monkey emerged from his own shadows on the ground at a top speed tackling Wukong.
Perhaps it was logically a bad idea, but Macaque didn’t hesitate to open a large portal behind them as they both fell into the black abyss. Macaque grabbed a hold of his phone within the shadow realm and tugged it out of the other’s grasp. The shadow monkey held the phone close to his chest before placing it right back into his Ru’s pocket.
Macaque kept the portal they had entered wide open so he could resurface with his phone he managed to steal back. Wukong slowly disappeared as the black and white monkey watched the Sage crawl through the dark abyss to resurface out the way they came. Macaque is ready to do the same now that he got what he needed.
Nothing else could be taken from Macaque tonight. Finally Macaque could....could..
Black tar of the abyss enveloped Macaque’s fur. Body parts that appeared to look like hands with distorted faces latched onto Macaque’s weaknesses.
First his leg was clutched. Black goop entered a cut that should be closed by now. Symbiote substance snuck its way inside entering his blood stream. Coldness from Macaque’s back was evident that the shadow realm’s millions of entities, that were all one, were entering through his back’s burns. Slowly the black tar morphed into exposed soft subcutaneous tissue. They wanted Macaque to become one with them.
Macaque was drowning. Pure enveloping panic caused air to be pushed out of his lungs. The more he opened his mouth the shadow realm’s self would enter his throat, ravaging his bronchial tubes to latch onto his alveoli sacks. Even old injuries were fondled in the most horrid way, as the black symbiote surrounded the shadow monkey.
Macaque could no longer see out of his right eye as the black goop entered through his glamoured scar. The shade’s glamoured damaged top right ear too was being medaled with. The black and white simian felt violated when the symbiote entered his only half an ear, traveling past his eardrum dancing on his auditory nerve. Macaque screamed as he grabbed at his eye, ears, leg, and back trying everything to rub the black sludge away.
For the first time in Macaque’s life, Macaque heard them. There were millions of voices. All saying different things at once. At the same time they all spoke as one.
“Come back and finish your transformation.” They said together.
Macaque’s ears felt like they were bleeding. It was their blood Macaque somehow knew that was leaking from his pointed lobes, in pure black beginnings of bliss.
Bliss..? This wasn’t bliss!? Everything was so cold. Macaque was being consumed alive right now, they were devouring him from the inside out, how could he think this was…And yet the voices sounded like such a soothing lullaby.
The black now fully filling the shade’s lungs was becoming such a comforting welcome. Macaque’s back no longer felt pinched with nerves, his hurt leg felt at peace, his right top ear no longer rang, and it felt like Macaque could finally see vibrant color out of his right eye.
Everything was warm, inviting. Like a toad sitting in boiling water until it’s too late, Macaque’s struggles became less and less.
Even Macaque’s inner snake was entranced. Like Buddha himself was playing a hypnotizing flute. The black cobra could not hear its transfixing music but the movement and feeling of the flute’s dance was an immense infinity of relief. Even if the serpent wanted to bite, its mouth was sewn shut with black sludge. Fangs were taken.
The symbiote entered Macaque’s nerves, puppeteering him.
Perhaps dying this way wasn’t so bad…Macaque thought.
Unlike the snake being entranced, Macaque’s inner moth had jittery wings of excitement….ready for its transformation. Even the moths also residing within Macaque raised their wings in silent pleads of wanting to join. For they only wanted Macaque as a larva to metamorphosize just like them and to no longer be trapped within his gut, just like how Macaque wanted to escape being trapped in the bowels of the shadow realm.
Macaque’s snake escaped his jaws and danced and his moths too jumped off his tongue, encasing his body. The winged insects flew under the shadow monkey’s arms lifting them up. Their moth wings were becoming one with his limbs. Hands were changing to alluring thin transparent membranes. A pattern that Macaque could not see was decorating itself on the outside of Macaque’s transforming wings. The feeling was ethereal. It was beautiful.
Before Macaque could finish his transformation, familiar golden claws grabbed one of his wings and tugged. As if a cat dragging its catch to its mouth by a paw, the shadow was pulled away from his speciousness figment of utopia. Macaque could no longer scream with no oxygen in this realm as something grabbed him harshly, dragging him to the land of the living.
The brightness of the darkest night almost blinded Macaque, now that his eyes were forced to focus. As if being birthed into another world, oxygen hit Macaque like a truck when his tongue tasted mortal realm air when resurfacing from the shadow realm.
Macaque gasped and gagged on black goop almost throwing up from having so much foreign substance in his body. Every part of him oozed black sludge that fell off of him and dissipated into the shadows, basically evaporating from existence. The symbiote fully disappeared, not allowed to exist in the mortal realm.
At first, Macaque was confused why he didn’t disappear with them as he heard their screams cease to exist, as if watching a part of himself die right in front of him. His wings were gone, same as the black entities who were transforming him. Macaque’s delusion of his snake and moths no longer existed. Like they weren’t even real.
Hearing was the last sixth sense to return to the shadow monkey as Macaque started to pick up a loud obnoxious familiar golden simian…yelling in his face.
Abruptly, all senses collided into one, and Macaque was back in the present night, in the middle of an alley with Wukong clutching the sides of the shade’s arms tensely.
“What the HELL is WRONG WITH YOU–!??” Wukong was enraged as he gripped Macaque’s shoulders, practically shaking the shadow.
Macaque hasn’t seen Wukong this stirred up in a long time. Did Macaque piss him off? Was the mongoose awake? Part of Macaque didn’t really care at the moment, still hung up on the..very enlightening experience he almost just had. Yet his surroundings started to catch up to him when the moths in his belly, heart, and rib cage were felt to be hitting and smashing within, trapped in his body once again. His snake lay dormant. Both figments of his imagination, no longer in physical form.
Macaque was in a daze as he tried to read Wukong within the moment.
“What-...what do you mean..?” Macaque’s voice was barely above a whisper as he asked a very vulnerable feeling question.
“YOU–...” Wukong heavily sighed.
The Sages warm visible breath hitting his face really encapsulated just how cold Macaque felt in the moment. Just a few seconds ago he felt so warm. Now Macaque stood on unstable legs that couldn’t even hold him up, they were so shaky from the shadow’s cold chitters of clattering teeth. Wukong was basically his only support system holding him up right now. If the golden simian were to let go, Macaque would surely collapse.
“When you didn’t come back I thought…” Wukong had an unreadable face along with an unreadable tone as he looked to the side before looking at the shadow in the face again. “Were you trying to kill yourself or somthing!? You moron…I thought you had control of your shadow magic, what was that, Macaque!!?” Wukong was incredibly domineering at this moment.
Macaque just wanted to curl in a ball, and place his hands over his ears.
“It’s I–...” Macaque’s consciousness returned..don’t show more weakness in front of the enemy. “It was nothing…nothing happened. I’m perfectly fine.” Macaque put on a brave scowl.
“You are not FINE.” Wukong clearly stated.
Macaque was silent..the shadow was beginning to feel incredibly scolded.
“You need to sit down.” Wukong began dragging the shivering shadow back over to the side of the brick wall.
Macaque resisted not wanting to be told what to do. “I can stand, Wukong.” The black and white simian spit out.
“Ok. Stand then.” Wukong said sternly as he suddenly let go of the other monkey.
Said shadow stood for only about a few seconds before his unsteady legs began to heavily wobble. Macaque knew he was going to fall, but he would rather kiss one of the 10 kings of Diyu’s ass, before asking Wukong for help. It didn’t take long for the shade’s legs to completely buckle, the concrete awaiting his arrival. Macaque gasped when he felt strong arms catch him right before his face could collide with the ground.
“Idiot..you're acting like a cub.” Wukong led Macaque over to the wall helping the black and white monkey slowly sit down.
“I am no cub.” Macaque mustered the strength to retort.
“You're freezing. Much more than normal.” Wukong ignored Macaque’s last statement.
The shadow reeled at Wukong’s touch when the golden simian had placed the back of his right hand against Macaque’s forehead. The overwhelming heat of the King’s hand was almost a burning like sensation, yet oddly enough left a calming effect on the shadow. And within mere seconds the Sage’s hand was taken away and the calmness that was present returned back to remembering the feeling of pain throughout his entire being.
Macaque rested his head on the back of the wall as he avoided Wukong’s constant eye contact as the King crouched in front of him. The shade’s arms laid by his sides, too tired to hug his knees that were glued to his chest. Shivers continued to wrack his system, since Macaque could no longer stop them.
“What are you my doctor now?” Macaque weakly scoffed.
“If I attempted to be a doctor the elders on the mountain would scold me for being crazy.” Wukong let out a light snort as he rested his arms over his own knees in his crouched position.
Macaque let out a snicker, recuperating Wukong’s comment. “Bet they thought the same thing when you decided to be a mentor.” Macaque’s side of his mouth tilted upwards at the thought.
“HEY! I’m actually a great mentor. All the elders definitely think so.” Wukong threw a peeved annoyed pout.
The atmosphere was a strange one as Macaque heard Wukong sigh, plucking a piece of hair from his scalp. Lightly blowing on it, the golden Sage fabricated a thick warm wool material like blanket. The material’s color, the same as the King’s auburn rich fur. Before Macaque could retort against having a blanket of hair being placed on him, Wukong already went to work tossing the fabric into the air and wrapping it around the black and white simian.
The golden Sage’s expression was a pinched one as he placed the blanket, almost as if worried the ginger simian would be attacked if he made the wrong movement. Said look was filled with a serious front which appeared to be slowly chipping away with underneath worry. It was an old familiar gesture. Almost a forgotten practice, which Macaque didn’t know present Wukong was still capable of showing to the shadow anymore.
“What in the 10 courts of hell are you doing!?” Macaque wanted to rip apart the blanket, yet his hands continued to rest by his sides.
“Making sure your pathetic ass doesn’t freeze to death, Six. That’s what I’m doing.” Wukong snarled back, glaring the shadow down like he didn’t know how to take care of himself.
Macaque could tell the golden simian wanted to rearrange the blanket to his liking, but the Sage was holding himself back.
“Don’t you pity me.” Macaque’s expression grew sour and dark. “Should have done that before I died, not after.”
Regardless of the shadow’s own words, Macaque lifted his arms and pulled the corners of the blanket more over his shoulders. The blanket was warm, Wukong’s magic flowing through it calming his nerves.
If Macaque had the energy he would have ripped the blanket off and torn it to shreds…but the shadow couldn’t help but feel like he was wrapped in a supportive cocoon of sorts. Whether he was poking the mongoose or not right now, Macaque was too tired for anymore bullsh*t. The restless snake completely burrowed back inside his throat, now resting its body.
“Yeah well…I’m doing it now so take or leave it.” Wukong continued to stay crouched in front of Macaque for a moment before standing back up on his feet.
Surprising Macaque, Wukong looked to have no more words to say as he began to walk away. Just a few feet of distance was between them before the golden Sage created his little cloud, placing a boot on the cumulus texture.
Macaque quickly reached within his left pocket.
The can that had hit Macaque in the head earlier before their fight was now tossed directly at the back of Wukong’s head. The hit caused the celestial monkey to let out a loud short high pitched yelp that had the golden simian whip his head to his assailant. Confused fury was lit up in his glamoured golden irises.
“The HECK was THAT for HUH!!??” Wukong took an upset defensive stance waving his hands in the air in a pissed off gesture, yet did not make any advancement to go near the other.
Macaque placed on his signature smirk even if its form was wobbly, yet his tone held clear importance as he spoke. “Don’t forget to go see the Kid. He’s really been bent out of shape since you left.” It was a genuine request. If Macaque wasn't allowed to comfort the kid, then the Monkey King better step up and do it himself then. The kid deserved better.
“He’s really upset with me, isn’t he..?” Wukong dared to question, his face dispirited.
Macaque didn’t have to answer, the truth revealing itself within his own glamoured golden eyes.
Wukong’s expression softened then. The wrinkles above his scrunched nose lessened, and the crinkled lines crashing together above his eyebrows lifted. Wukong’s mouth turned to a wobbly half smile half frown, his eyes speaking back that he understood. A few slow affirming nods was the only answer that Macaque got before the Sage fully climbed on his cloud ready to leave.
Before zooming off in a rush of wind, Wukong turned to glare at Macaque one last time.
“Are you wearing plum perfume?” Wukong looked eager for an answer.
Again the shadow remained silent for a moment. The only indication Macaque acknowledged the celestial’s question was with an upturned nose to the side and narrow glare. Body language evident that the shade had better things to do other than answer a stupid question.
Thank the gods Macaque’s ‘don’t give a f*ck attitude’ took charge because that very question made the shadow’s heart leap out of his chest.
The plum perfume was the very same perfume that KOK wore tonight when Wukong fought with the shadow kitsune. Macaque used to brag that the celestial’s nose was far superior than Erlang’s bloodhound snout. Now the mere idea of that statement had Macaque worried for his life. If the celestial were to put the puzzle pieces together….
Macaque was going to have to be more careful when he chose to hide his scent. It’s not like Macaque knew that the King was going to confront him tonight. Quite the curveball.
Does he know…? Oh well..back in the damn shadow realm Macaque goes if Wukong figures it out.
“Well it reeks.” Wukong glowered down at the other.
“Go stick your nose in a dumpster.” Macaque whipped his head to him hissing. Ok, maybe he doesn’t know.
“Already have. And the dumpster smells like plums.” Wukong’s classical smirk adorned his mug.
Macaque’s face changed from slightly apprehensive annoyance to a complete full on pissed of scowl.
Oh thank the gods Wukong didn’t suspect…at least Macaque hoped. The golden simian was stupid but not that stupid. Macaque would have to tread carefully in the future.
Before Macaque could retort, the golden monkey shot into the sky leaving wind ruffling the shade’s fur, almost making the blanket fly off his back.
The soda can got picked up by the wind again and Macaque dodged it this time before it almost squarely hit him in the head like last time.
That cheeky prick…getting away with the last word after their fight.
Macaque rubbed his chin with the back of a hand. Wukong’s blood is still all over his muzzle, now coating the back of Macaque’s palm. Such a bittersweet taste, dried blood.
A shaky exhale left the shadow.
Begrudgingly Macaque threw the blanket he had over his head, cocooning himself within the material. The blanket provided both the most repulsive stench and the most comforting warmth.
If Macaque wasn’t still in shock from everything’s events, he would have thrown away Wukong’s blanket by now. That’s what Macaque kept telling himself as he hugged the soft material closer to his face, nuzzling into the fabric.
Well tonight was f*cking terrible…could it get any worse than this..?
