Chapter Text
Sun Wukong had learned early into the Journey to the West that his appearance was rather…frightening. While that may have made him feel superior to other demons, it made his new friends afraid. So, Wukong did the only thing he could think of – he hid.
He applied glamour after glamour on himself to make himself look more approachable, it made the tension in the other demons’ and the monk’s shoulders go away. Even the monkeys on Flower Fruit Mountain started getting closer to him – climbing over him, grooming him, latching onto his back –, after keeping their distance from their monstrous king for the longest time.
He reapplied the glamours every day, making them stronger, as close to unbreakable as he could get them to be. Only the Monkey King himself would be able to remove them. If he ever intended to, and he didn’t.
Even though the Sage had retired, he still he enjoyed a good fight once in a while. When MK called him to help out with a Lion Demon that was attacking the city, Wukong was ecstatic.
While he was happy to have his successor it did get rather boring staying all cooped up in his hut when the kid didn’t come for training.
So the Monkey King found himself beside his successor. He threw punch after punch at the demon, MK trying to swat him with the staff and his friends cornering the three of them. The demon was slowly starting to give in, not deflecting the hits as well as before. Wukong found his lips tugging into a small smile.
He drew his hand back to strike the demon again – watching his successor coming up from the other side, ready to swipe the monster’s feet from beneath them –, when his opponent suddenly fizzled out of existence. The Sage stared in distaste at the lone hair that slowly toward the ground.
A clone. They had been fighting a clone.
Wukong clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. What a coward. Not even brave enough to show himself, the king had half a mind to not tear the place apart. He knows he would have done so years ago – before the journey. But the journey had been centuries ago, and Wukong had changed, he wasn’t who he used to be, and he was proud of it.
“Monkey King!” MK all of a sudden yelled, “Behind you!”
Before the monkey had even fully turned around, he was tackled to the ground and this time the fight was all teeth. The lion bit the Sage in the throat causing him to shriek and swipe at the other’s face with his claws.
His successor and their friends shouted and came running towards them, but the Monkey King was too focused on his brawl to pay any attention to them. Instincts from long ago took over as he kicked and bit and screeched.
He hit his limit when the lion suddenly grabbed him by his tail and pulled. With a yell Wukong turned and did something he hasn’t done in a long time.
Before the journey he used to intimidate others with his glowing ruby eyes, but his master had been so afraid of him, and that made the Sage’s heart squeeze in his chest. In the end, he deemed it better to hide his true eyes. He would occasionally send a red glare at any demon that dared to come to close. It would send them scurrying away in a panic the moment they saw them.
So while Wukong pulled his tail out of the other’s grasp he let his glamour slip away.
The demon instantly froze, visibly gulping. Wukong saw his own face reflected in the lion’s eyes. He barely recognized himself due to the bright red that emitted from his own eyes. His glare sharpened when the other took a step back and he bared his teeth, leaning slightly forward.
With a terrified yelp the demon darted away from him.
Somewhere behind him someone squeaked. With a growl Wukong whipped around, raising his hand, ready to strike whoever dared come close to the Heaven’s Equal.
What greeted him was the sight of his successor taking a step back, Mei gripping her sword tightly with both of her hands. Sandy held one of his huge arms in front of Tang, the scholar stared at the Monkey King with his mouth agape. Pigsy moved to stand next to MK, ready to pull the kid behind him if needed.
And Wukong stared at them, at their horrified expressions and their tight grips on their weapons. Suddenly he felt like he was back under the mountain, when he had sent his promised savior a sly smirk that made the monk tremble where he stood. It was the first time Wukong realized he didn’t like seeing his friends afraid of him.
Yet here he stood, watching as his new friends – if they were his friends, maybe they simply saw him as a means to an end like so many before them did – sent each other unsure looks.
The king slowly let his hands fall to his sides, pulling his lips down in a frown.
“Sorry, bud,” he laughed and started taking a few long strides towards MK, “Instincts kicked in, I didn’t mean to scare ya.”
He tried to put a hand on the kid’s shoulder, but they flinched back. “MK?”
MK lifted his staff, “Monkey King?”
The kid’s voice sounded unsure, his successors eyes were scanning his face. Wukong rolled his eyes and simply nodded. He stretched out both of his arms and gestured to himself, “Who else would I be?”
MK hesitated, “So you aren’t being possessed.”
Wukong wasn’t sure if that was supposed to be a statement or a question. The Sage stared at MK, not certain what to make of that. He searched the kid’s face for answers, when suddenly the two of them made eye contact and that’s where Wukong got his answer.
He barely recognized himself in his student’s eyes because of the bright red that covered most of his reflection.
Wukong wasn’t sure if the gasp came from the group or himself, but he barely had time to think about that when he activated the glamour on his eyes once again. The sharp red disappeared and was replaced with the usual, soft golden color.
Without sparing a second glance at the others, the king summoned his cloud and bolted straight for his mountain home. He didn’t even bother to answer the confused monkeys that saw their distressed ruler, he merely shut himself in his hut. In his room he stared into a mirror, letting the glamour on his eyes flicker on and off.
And if the monkeys heard glass shattering and sobbing deep into the night, they never spoke of it.
MK hasn’t seen his mentor in days, not since the fight with the Lion Demon and he was starting to get worried.
He decided to go to Flower Fruit Mountain and check on Monkey King. When they arrived, a horde of monkeys swarmed him and shrieked with worried expressions. They practically dragged him to their king’s hut, not answering a single one of their questions.
MK was shocked, to stay the least, when he saw shattered glass lying all around the house. They were even more shocked when they entered. Furniture was lying everywhere, claw marks decorated the walls and every mirror MK passed was either scratched so much he could barely see himself or broken, with the shards lying all over the floor.
And Monkey King had a lot of mirrors.
Carefully they stepped over yet another pile of shards and tenderly called out to their mentor, “Monkey King, it’s me, MK, are you home?”
He was met with silence. MK sighed and was ready to step back and leave when he heard the quiet creak of a door opening. Looking around MK saw the Monkey King’s head poking through a doorway.
“Bud? Wha-what are you doing here?” Monkey King asked.
MK tentatively took a step forward, “I…came for training? That’s still on, right.” He tried to laugh but it came out just slightly wrong.
The Sage stepped out of the doorway, hugging himself, but not making any move to come closer to his successor.
Monkey King looked around his hut, not even once glancing at MK. He chuckled, “Actually, bud, I haven’t been feeling too well lately. So you can just go back to the city. I’ll, uhm, call you or something.”
MK stared at his mentor in disbelief. He took a deep breath and walked up to the almost cowering king.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s been going on with you, but I’m guessing it has to do with your eyes?” Better rip the bandage off quickly. MK shuffled even closer.
At first, Monkey King didn’t say anything, simply stared at the floor, then, albeit hesitantly, he nodded.
“I’m guessing you…I guess you don’t like them?” MK asked.
The chuckle that escaped his mentor’s mouth was without humor, “How could I?”
For the first time in days, the two heroes locked eyes. The king’s golden eyes were bloodshot, and MK really wasn’t sure what to make of that. They knew their mentor wasn’t as tough as he made himself out to be. The books recounted several instances in which the Sage broke down, but MK had never seen it himself.
Something in his chest squeezed at the sight of the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven hunching in on himself, trying to make himself to appear small. The human couldn’t deny that the monkey’s true eyes scared him, and he guessed the king new that as well. If those eyes were, in fact, the reason for Monkey King’s strange behavior, then MK would do anything to help their mentor accept them.
They just couldn’t bear seeing their mentor this afraid of them.
MK rubbed the back of his neck, “I think they look cool,” the king’s ears perked up at that, tail lasing behind him, “Sure, it was a bit…unexpected at first, but I guess it kinda makes sense? In…well, the book says you have red eyes, but I guess I thought they just got that wrong or maybe just did that intentionally to – “
“Make me look like a monster?” Monkey King cut him off, “Yeah, they didn’t have to make that up. I am a demon after all. The book gets stuff wrong, but it was right about that,” he chuckled dryly.
MK chewed on their lip, “They look cool,” they said, “a bit hard to look at, though. Y’know, ‘cause they’re really bright, but still cool.”
Silence stretched between student and mentor. Outside monkeys were chirping, making the king’s ears twitch.
“You don’t have to keep the glamour up,” MK finally said, “At least not around me,” Monkey King looked unsure and took a step back, unexpectedly dropping the glamour and flashing the bright red eyes at the human. MK didn’t so much as flinch, “And you don’t have to keep it up around the others either. You don’t have to hide anymore, Monkey King. I promise.”
And if after that the king started flashing his eyes at the others to gape at their unfazed expressions no one mentioned it.