Chapter Text
Mk vigorously dug through the messy heaps of Monkey King’s hoard, sending dust and musk flying everywhere. The piles were so massive that they reached the ceiling with their great heights, and the Monkey King himself sat at the tip of one of those peaks.
“Found it yet, bud?”
“Nope,” came a rushed grunt, followed by more clanks and clunks of artifacts being haphazardly tossed to the side.
“Hey hey, careful! Those are probably, like, super valuable relics.”
“Sorry Monkey King! I’m just really stressed out.”
“I can tell,” the King dropped to the ground in one easy hop, landing next to his student. “Is there anything specific you have in mind?”
“Not really. I mean, Tang would’ve totally loved the limited edition Monkey King figurines, but he already took those from your stash ages ago, so he hasn’t left me many options here.”
“Can’t you just buy him something from the malls? Surely that’d be easier.”
“I dunno,” Mk sighed, crossing his arms. “It’s his zodiac year and he’s been all superstitious about it. I thought some sorta ancient protective charm-lookin’ trinket would be a nice birthday gift.”
“That’s thoughtful of you, kid,” Monkey King patted him on the back before retreating to an antique couch. “Hurry it up though, I’m kicking you out in two hours. I need my beauty sleep and I don’t trust you roamin’ around in here unsupervised.”
Mk gave a mock salute, “Sir, yessir!” Then, like a dog seeing a squirrel, his attention was instantly stolen by a reflective light from the side. “ Ohhh , what’s this?”
The reflection was from an unassuming old mirror, squeezed under a ceramic piece and above an upside-down table. Hanging from one of the table legs was a plain but beautiful necklace. The string was maroon— but it would probably turn red after a good cleaning —with a red tassel hanging off one end. On the other, a charming piece of golden stone hung from the end with one word etched on the surface, some ancient character that Mk couldn’t read.
Excitedly, Mk grabbed the necklace without thinking twice. He squealed with glee once he finally tugged it free but his triumph was short-lived. He flinched when glass shattered by his feet, sending shards flying across the floor, narrowly missing his legs. “Oops.”
“Everything alright, kid?”
“Yup! I think I broke a mirror, sorry,” he coughed.
“Nah, don’t worry about it,” the King lazily turned from his back onto his side, eyes scanning Mk to assess the damage. “At least it wasn’t one of those super artsy and expensive looking vases,” he joked with a twiddle of his fingers. “I would’ve docked a hefty price off your paycheck if you lost me a small fortune.”
“Wait a second,” Mk narrowed his eyes with a lopsided grin. “You don’t even pay me.”
“Huh, you’re right. Guess I’ll hafta dock it from your paycheck at Pigsy’s Noodle’s then.”
“Hey, you can’t—” he hacked into his sleeve. Where was all this dust coming from? Was the mirror that dirty?
He could see Monkey King’s expression growing increasingly concerned through his slit of vision before he was sent into another coughing fit.
cold. so cold. the low temperature was proof enough that he was alone. he wrapped his arms around himself but found that he had no arms. no matter how he struggled, he couldn’t move. no, please, someone, anyone. m ei? pigsy? tang?
… monkey king?
“Kid, get outta there!”
Within the next second, Monkey King was behind him, and then he was grabbed by under the armpits and tossed away.
Mk landed on the couch he occupied seconds prior with an ‘oomf’. “What… what was that?” he muttered, rubbing his head. It felt like it was splitting open.
He blinked through his disorientation, barely catching the darkened form of his mentor through the sudden mist that had gathered around the King, before it grew so thick that even his silhouette was swallowed.
“ MONKEY KING ,” he yelled, regaining his bearings enough to take out his staff. “Monkey King! Are you okay?” He tried to blow away the black mist by swinging his staff but to no avail.
It wouldn’t go away. It wouldn’t even let him jump in, somehow bouncing Mk backwards every time he tried.
Panic started to choke up his throat— or maybe that was the smog —before he was promptly distracted by the shrill cry of a child.
It came from the direction where he thought he last saw his mentor.
“Monkey…King?”
“Right here, kid,” came a normal, adult sounding voice through the fog. Huh. Must’ve been his imagination. The mist was dissipating and Mk could almost cry with relief.
“Are you okay? What happened?”
“Dunno,” a cough. “There might’ve been some sort of spell embedded in that mirror. I don’t feel any differences so the magic must’ve expired by now.” Mk could start to see the vague outline of Monkey King’s form if he squinted and also…something else…
“‘Expired’?” he scrunched his nose, starting to walk towards his mentor while flapping away the leftover dregs of mist floating through the air. “Is that how magic works?”
“Eh,” Monkey King gave a non committal hum. “I dunno. Probably.”
The mist unwrapped from his body and Mk sighed in relief, seeing how his unbothered mentor looked untouched for the most part.
Then, he noticed something else off to the side. Mk’s eyes widened at what the mist left behind. “What is that?!”
Monkey King’s head snapped to where Mk was pointing. A naked monkey cub sat on the floor, sucking on the tip of his own tail as he stared back at them with round, twinkly eyes. He had a familiar heart-shaped, peachy marking around his eyes. Very familiar.
The pair turned to stare back at each other, mentor and mentee seemingly arriving at the same realization at the same time.
“Oh shit.”
A giddy, high-pitched cackle rang through the treasure room. What seemed to be a baby version of Monkey King found the situation very amusing for some reason, clapping his hands in glee as the real Monkey King glared at it, mouth twisted in horror.
~
“Could be a mist monster. I say we kill it ,” Wukong declared.
“Stop that!” Mk gasped, cupping his hands around baby-Wukong’s ears. “You’re gonna scare him!”
They were sitting cross-legged in the living room of Wukong’s hut, trying to figure out what happened and how are we gonna deal with this. The King had been pretty adamant on just getting rid of it, but his student seemed to have suddenly incurred a bout of baby fever.
“Don’t be silly Mk,” he furrowed his brows. “He can’t understand what we’re saying. Look at ‘im! Not a single thought in that lil’ pea-brain.”
Indeed, the baby looked pretty simple-minded, in the way that crude sociopathic predators were. Wukong could almost see the words ‘DESTRUCTION’, ‘HAVOC’, ‘CHAOS’ beaming from those big ol’ eyes.
“Okay, maybe just a few thoughts.”
“Don’t bully him, he’s just a wittle baby!”
Wukong rolled his eyes. “Yeah? Well he’s my baby, so I think I get to decide what happens to him and I say we get rid of it before it surprise-attacks us.”
“But he’s so cute! Look how innocent he is,” Mk pouted with his puppy eyes, squishing his cheek against the cub’s for comparison. “He would never hurt a fly.”
“Stop! You’re falling for his deceptions! This is the number one tactic small-fry demons used to trick and hunt humans back in the day, y’know? Jeez, did I teach you anything ?”
“Lighten up Monkey King, he’s just a baby! Besides, aren’t you even a little excited to see baby-you?”
Wukong grouched. “No.” Then, his stormy expression melted a bit at the way the cub chittered noisily, trying to climb into the King’s lap. A few answering chirps escaped his throat before he could stop them. “Okay, fine. I do make a pretty adorable baby.”
“That’s the spirit,” Mk beamed. “Besides, we gotta figure out the details of the mirror’s spell. If we do anything too hastily, we might totally screw up something bad . Like, imagine if baby-Monkey King nicked his knee, and—and a scar magically appears on your knee!” Mk blanched at his own theory. “We definitely can’t kill him.”
Wukong grumbled, wanting to argue back but can’t seem to find a way to string his words together into something logical and rational. As much as he hated to admit it, Mk was right.
“But what am I supposed to do with the baby then? My house isn’t—isn’t baby-proofed!” Baby-Wukong gave a joyous little cry over his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, Pigsy’s on his way.”
“Pigsy’s on his— Wha— how ?”
Mk gave a sly grin, “I texted him as soon as we left the treasure room.”
Wukong glared. “You were never planning to even consider my kill-the-baby plan, were you?”
“Nope!”
~
“What a damn tragedy,” Pigsy lamented. “Who knew Monkey King was such a cute lil’ bugger when he was younger?” He sighed while holding the cub in his arms. “Never turn out like him, alright kid?”
“Tough luck,” Wukong loudly grumbled from the bedroom. “He’s me from the past so he’s gonna inevitably turn out exactly like me!”
“Don’t listen to him. There’s no way you’re the same person,” Pigsy earnestly told baby-Wukong. “There’s been a mix up! You must be some random baby monkey who happens to have identical markings as that bozo .”
“Yeah yeah, whatever you say, ya old swine,” Wukong stretched as he walked into the living room. “Alright, I finished covering all the sockets. What’s next?”
The cub was thrusted into his arms. “Lucky you, you’re on baby-holding duty while I finish up the soup.”
“Baby- holding?” Wukong wrinkled his nose, staring back into twinkly golden eyes. “Can’t we just let him run around on his own? He’s a monkey cub, not some human infant .”
“Still though, babies that age should be held often,” Mk explained as he walked in from the kitchen. “It’s good for their emotional well-being.”
Wukong rolled his eyes. “The real me was never held as a cub and I turned out fine.”
Mk and Pigsy gave him a look .
“Stop! Why are you looking at me like that!”
“Oh, nothing,” Mk laughed nervously with his hands held up placatingly. Pigsy just scoffed and walked into the kitchen.
~
Pigsy and Mk headed back to Megapolis later that afternoon. Tossing aside the instructions they left, Wukong placed the cub on his couch and crouched down to his eye-level. He needed to set some ground rules, make some things clear before the suspicious mist monster baby got any funny ideas.
“Okay, baby-me , or, uh — Shihou, I guess... whatever, listen up kiddo,” the King sat down, legs crossed. “You may have fooled everyone else , but the Great Sage ain’t some run-of-the-mill idiot, got it? One toe out of line,” he pinched and shook one of the cub’s toes for the added effect, which didn’t do much than make him giggle and squirm, “and I’ll CHOP OFF THAT TOE!”
The baby burst into a squeal— for a second, Wukong thought his threat might’ve been too effective —before it tapered off into more giggling. His tail curled around Wukong’s head as he waved his tiny hands and patted the Monkey King’s cheeks.
Wukong sighed, brushing back his hair. “Who am I kidding? How could I ever hurt such a cutie patootie lil’ face,” he wiggled a finger in the baby’s face which was promptly grabbed and sucked on. “You live for another day, bud— YOWCH!”
He tugged away his hand, staring at the bleeding teeth marks on his pointer. “You can’t talk but you’ve already grown teeth?” Shihou was cackling and rolling around on his back, the few bloody fangs on full display. Wukong glared, irritation bubbling under his skin. “Yeah yeah, keep laughing and I’ll file down those baby teeth.”