#I'm over here like 'yeah i'll write the spicynoodle stuff for this AU but can someone please ask me about the Dad Subplot?'

[vegalocity]

How about fluff 30 and 31 for the end of White Bone Amnesia, when Red Son and Qi Xiaotian have regained their memories

Dialogue Starters

30. “I’ve been in-love with you since we were kids.”

31. “I’m never going to leave you. I promise.”

all y'all asking about spicynoodles and i'm here like 'i wanna talk about this subplot actually' so then i do both

--

He was due for a talk with Red Son. That much was obvious.

They’d taken a break from their ‘something or another’ after the battle with the Lady Bone Demon, memories so flooded and overcrowding in Red Son’s and his own mind that it was just easier to go their separate ways while they respectively healed from the battle.

Besides, he had other things to worry about. He had a father clinging to him and Pigsy (Baije, Dadsy was Zhu Baije, he was ‘Uncle’ Baije for so long, that the idea that he’d latched onto someone he didn’t ACTUALLY REMEMBER having a hand in raising him but still felt distantly familiar, was absolutely bananas) and Tang (‘Uncle’ Sanzang! Tang was The Golden Cicada this whole time!.... He was a WAY better actor than Xiaotian would have ever thought) Equally emotional Though a bit less clingy meant that he’d been spending the last couple of days at the bottom of a 2/3rds fuzzy cuddle pile. Xiaojiao and Sandy (Uncle Wujing! He’d visited so rarely when Xiaotian was growing up, always so afraid of hurting him when he was still little) were there for the first few days during injury recovery, and any possible virulent reactions that could arise in the influx of returning memories, but at the end of the second day Xiaojiao had hugged him tight, reminded him if he was a year younger than her or centuries older they were still best friends, and left saying she needed to check in on her own parents and assure them she hadn’t died or anything.

And… It felt like coming home when on that third day he stared at himself in the mirror for awhile, blinked, and felt his fur return. Sprouting from his skin and his hair going a few shades lighter, a tail springing forth and-

He looked like himself. Like how he should be. How he was meant to be.

It almost felt ridiculous he’d spent as long as he had in the human form, it probably would never look quite right again in comparison, like he was just human-passing but not really being himself. No wonder he always felt so self conscious about his appearance when he didn’t remember.

And then his father had seen him like that and clutched onto him again, purrs rumbling so loud in his chest Xiaotian was practically vibrating against him.

It was on day five that he was able to finally slip out while His father was distracted with doting over Pigsy (whom was starting to get rather annoyed with the whole setup himself, Baije or not, memories or no, he was thinking of nothing but getting the shop back in order and was starting to get a bit stir crazy over it) and Tang helped him get away. A look that was far too knowing and a smirk that proved he’d been among mortals for way too long. He’d reached into a pocket and took out a small box. He’d been keeping hold of it ever since He and Red Boy had broken up all those years ago. Somehow he’d had a feeling they’d get back together eventually (and even after LBD had removed Red Boy’s history from everyone, He’d still kept hold of it, he just hadn’t quite known why anymore)

And as Xiaotian ran his hand over the old box (not old, he was only an adolescent when he’d carved it himself from one of the trees Father had felled to make the smaller cabin for the two of them) he remembered what was inside and what he’d made it for. Tang winked at him and promised to cover for him.

He was gonna sneak SO Many noodle bowls for Uncle Sanzang for being the cool uncle. (‘Uncle’ still wasn’t the best term for either of them granted they were both kinda-sorta-’with’ his father, but monks can’t get married so calling either of them dads too felt wrong, UGH this was a conundrum for child-him and yet here he was again!)

He didn’t have his father’s cloud, some things couldn’t be passed down from mentor to successor OR father to son so he wound up pole vaulting across the way to the fiery mountains.

And ironically he’d seen Red Son right out, standing at a near hidden balcony carved into the mountainside he remembered vividly from their shared youth.

And… they needed to talk.

So they did.

“-And suddenly mother couldn’t remember that I was capable of anything at all! And- And being under the mountain had spared father the same effect! He DID remember!” It hadn't taken long before Red Son had started pacing before Xiaotian, waving his arms and whisps of smoke rising from the tip of his ponytail. “I confronted the both of them and Mother was embarrassed but she said it was my own fault for being unremarkable once i myself forgot my own history, but father didn’t know what we were talking about! He always remembered me as Red Boy! Everything that happened! It was- It was why he’d expected so highly of me when he was freed, and-” Red Son paused, the smoke stopping. “Why he was disappointed and surprised, whenever I would fail to meet the standards of the demon he alone remembered me being.”

“And my father couldn’t even talk to me” He agreed. “-Until your father was freed and he had an excuse to be in my life again. He said directly, he hated being so hands-off with the training. He said it hurt to look at me and know i was only seeing ‘the Monkey King’” Red Son looked over at him and sat back down. A silent invite to go on. “I never once called my own father by his name because all i was seeing was the title and reputation.” something about that was finally starting to sink in. his eyes stung a bit. “I spent all that time he was away thinking that he regretted choosing me, Then when he came back that he was barely in contact because he didn't trust me to handle the Lady Bone Demon, that he thought i was weak or stupid or he couldn’t trust me, but he just-! He just couldn’t stand that his own kid didn’t remember who he was! I would have ditched a lot SOONER if the situation was reversed!” it felt so childish now, the idea that after raising him from hatching from that stone egg that his father would think like that about him! He’d ALWAYS made Xiaotian know he was proud of him and how much he’d been improving that first time around while training him! And sure he WAS always intimidated over living up to such a huge legacy, but he’d known that ‘successor’ or not he was his father’s SON first and foremost.

But he’d ran out of words. So he just sat there in his own feeling like a fool and having no one to blame but the Lady Bone Demon, and Red Son in a similar muck, When he’d remembered the box still resting in his jacket pocket.

“We were courting for most of our childhoods.” he found himself saying. Red Son stiffened beside him and then huffed out a laugh.

“No wonder we’d developed our little ‘game’ while on the ship.”

“And we said some pretty nasty stuff to each other after my dad kicked yours’ ass and dropped a mountain on his head.” He made sure the teasing lit was in his voice and Red Son groaned, throwing a hand over his eyes as he slumped backward a bit.

“Don’t remind me! Couldn’t the Lady Bone Demon have kept that repressed?”

“Remember your first courting gift to me?” He watched Red Son’s cheeks turn a gentle pink against the mid-morning light.

“Perhaps.”

He pulled the little box from his pocket and handed it to him. “I was gonna give you this back then, but we called the whole thing off before I could.”

Red Son turned to face him fully, but Xiaotian didn’t return the motion, keeping his eyes on the horizon, the faint outline of the city just visible. He watched from his periphery as Red Son opened the box and pulled back the cloth keeping it covered.

“It’s been awhile since that sort of hair tie was in style, but I figured it might be a nice place to start.” He closed his eyes, he didn’t want to see the reaction until he knew what it would be. “So uh- Red Son, Son of the Demon Bull King, We Did this whole courting thing before, and- I’d… I’ve been in love with you since we were kids so I'd like to try it again.”

There was a silence and he was worried when he’d open his eyes, Red Son would be gone, taken off in a silent panic and he’d have his heart incinerated by the same person twice.

“Look I know it’s cheesy and old fashioned, but this is a pretty big leap of faith and I’m really gonna need you to say something here.” he finally took a leap of faith and creaked open an eye.

His heart sank. Red Son looked furious. Stiff, with his shoulders nearly brushing his ears from how tightly he held himself, jaw clenched, his hair letting out sparks and embers as he barely contained his fury.

“This- Is NOT. FAIR.” he jolted to his feet and Xiaotian flinched back. Well, he tried. He tried and it’s not Uncle Sanzang’s fault it didn’t pan out. “I didn’t prepare anything! You can’t just go and do something this sentimental with a proposition I've been hoping for ever since maybe a MONTH after we called things off without forewarning me! I needed time to prepare something myself! I could have prepared a meal in reference to your gift to me! Or made you something to show off my new prowess in machinery! You can’t just DO this to me while I'm empty handed!”

Wait what

“I, Red Son, refuse to be taken as some simpering maiden with no agency in being courted! So prepare yourself for the wooing of a lifetime Noodle Boy!” He ripped his hair tie from his head in one swift motion, reaching down into the box and taking the purple ribbon out, trying his hair up with the offered gift instead.

“I demand you stay for dinner so I might prepare a feast as my own official start of this new courtship!”

Xiaotian blinked, still a bit reeling from the roller coaster Red Son’s shouting had put him through, before finally settling on- “Is that a yes?” though his voice came out far more vulnerable than he expected it to. Red Son’s expression softened, and when he offered his hand, Xiaotian took it, being helped up onto his feet though he didn’t need to be helped. It was nice to hold his hand again.

“Of course it’s a yes.” Red Son face was bright red and he gave a weak sort of half-chuckle, suddenly he was he one who couldn't look at him.

“And this time, I’m never going to leave you.”

They weren’t children anymore, and they didn’t have to be lead by the nostalgia they only now knew they had. This time when they tried to shoot for ‘forever’ they could do it with intent.

“I promisce.”

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