Jasmineteashipping idea: Maybe Tang, Pigsy, Sandy and Wukong are looking through his room full of stuff (like in Dumpling Destruction, the room with the vases and dolls) to see what they can throw away vs keep. Tang picks up Tripitaka's staff and starts getting really excited and explaining its importance to Sandy, but all Sandy can see is his old master.
OW! Why would you hurt me like this? That’s a sad image ;-;
But anyway-
Wukong, Pigsy, Sandy and Tang walked into a room that contained a myriad of treasures big enough to form hills. Tang had a hand on Sandy’s arm which resulted in the demon’s heart doing a light flutter at the touch.
He ignored the feeling in favor of observing the room, this was a lot… but it was to be expected after what the king told them. The pig looked at the treasure up and down then placed his hand on his hips. “You have a problem,” he remarked to the king.
The king rolled his eyes and scoffed. “This is why I asked you to help me.”
“We’re goin’ to be here all night,” the pig complained.
“Would that be so bad?”
“Contrary to what ya believe, I don’t like spendin’ every wakin’ hour with you especially doin’ somethin’ like this.”
“Well that’s disappointing and here I thought you loved me,” the king snarked.
“In your dreams.”
“Awwww so you’ll appear in my dreams then.” He winked.
Pigsy stuttered and flushed crimson. “Quiet!” He took a second to recover before asking, “Now how are we goin’ to do this?”
“We could split up,” Sandy suggested. “Tang and I take one side while you two take the other. What do you think, Tang?” He asked the scholar who had been eerily quiet the entire time.
Tang didn’t answer, entranced by the objects that each held their own history. His eyes lit up and he was practically shaking from excitement. He rushed towards a pile and began digging, grabbing whatever was in reach and rambling on about this and that.
A bead of sweat popped up on the fish demon’s face while the other two snorted. “I guess that’s a yes then.” Again no answer as the human preferred to gawk at everything, Sandy had honestly found it cute, Tang was cute.
Wukong patted his brother on the shoulder, a small laugh emitting from his lips. He whispered, “Have fun, Wujing.” It was in such a quiet, soft tone so no one but Sandy and Wukong could hear, Sandy wasn’t exactly comfortable revealing his identity just yet.
“Tch. Thanks, big brother.”
“Now Pigsy and I will take the left,” he proclaimed in a louder voice.
Pigsy took the king’s hand and led him to their half of the room. Wukong shouted, “Oh by the way, if you find any memorabilia from any of my movies and acting or shows, something along those lines, don’t throw those out!”
“Okay,” Sandy yelled back and walked towards Tang.
“Sandy! Look at all of this! This is amazing!”
The demon smiled at the other’s enthusiasm. “Yes, it is! There’s so much around here!”
“I know right! So much history lies in these objects!” He continued picking up various items, some that sent a wave of nostalgia down Wujing’s spine.
He admired the scholar’s grand descriptions as much as he admired the other himself. Tang was incredibly smart, the amount of knowledge that could be pulled from his lips was astonishing.
It was one of the million things he loved about him. The scholar had his heart in more ways than one, that’s for certain.
Joy bubbled in the demon to see Tang rave about his passion, the raving helped overshadow Wukong and Pigsy’s argument on the other side about what the king should throw away and it was an opportunity to get a bit of the human’s attention. Something he had longed for for a while but never admitted out loud.
Tang never paid much attention to him, he had grander and better things to focus on, Sandy believed he was more of an acquaintance than a friend in the other’s eyes.
But that wasn’t surprising, it wasn’t as if it hadn’t occurred before.
He held back a sigh, some things never changed. Trip- Tang didn’t care about him just as it had always been.
At least there were moments where he could be around Tang without feeling the scorn.
“Sandy,” Tang shouted.
“Yea, Tang?”
“I have just found the biggest find of them all here!”
“Oh? And what would that be?”
“This!” Tang pulled an artifact out and Sandy felt his heart stop. It was his master’s staff, no, no, no. Wukong didn’t tell him he kept it. No, no, no. Tang grinned from ear to ear, doing a little twirl as he gripped it. “This is one of the biggest finds in history! This belonged to the monk Tripitaka. He-”
And white noise rang in Sandy’s ears. The human chattered but no words formed. Panic started to form in the pit of Sandy’s stomach. He closed his eyes and breathed softly then opened them to see a glow surrounding Tang, no, Tripitaka who held the staff.
He blinked rapidly in an attempt to wave the image away but it wouldn’t go away.
The monk was in his attire he wore in the Journey, a soft smile on his face, rambling presumably about the same thing Tang was and golden wings that Sandy was tempted to reach out and touch.
“Ma-master,” he managed out. This was just a hallucination, it wasn’t real, Tripitaka was gone and even if he wasn’t, he would never look at him that way.
“Wujing,” the hallucination said and took a step forward. Wujing leaned back but his feet were planted firmly on the ground.
“You’re not real.”
The monk curled a brow and tilted his head. “Am I or am I not?”
“Definitely not.”
“No matter. It is wonderful to see you, Wujing.”
“You-you too…”
Tripitaka took another step. “I have not had eyes on you in years, well I have. That is beside the point. Let me get a good look at you.” He reached his hands out to cup his cheeks. Sandy’s chest heaved, a heavy weight crushing his chest.
“S-stop.”
The monk frowned and did as he was asked. “Hm? Did I do something to upset you, Wujing?”
“You’re not real, master.”
“Why does it matter whether I’m real or not?”
“It matters to me.”
He huffed in response. “My Wujing-”
“Please don’t call me that.”
“Okay, I won’t. I do not get why you do not want me to get a good look at you. I missed you so much.”
“Since when?” He asked, his teeth grinding together.
“Since forever. Do you not believe me?”
No. Absolutely not. “I do believe you, master. I just… you’re not real.” You’re not real.
“I see my appearance has caused you much distress… I only wanted to see you. I will take my leave now. Goodbye, Wujing.”
Wind swept around the monk’s feet, Sandy stared at the wind confused. He was brought back by the snap of someone’s fingers in front of his face.
The hallucination had gone away completely with Tang in his place, staff still in hand. “Sandy? Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” If Sandy didn’t know any better, he could have sworn the scholar looked legitimately concerned.
Sweat threatened to drip down his face, he swallowed roughly and answered, “Yea, I’m fine. Sorry, Tang. Must have dazed off.”
Tang huffed. “So that means you missed my explanation. Do you want me to repeat it?”
“N-no, it’s-”
“Hey, Sandy,” Wukong called and waved him over. “Mind helping me with something?”
“Uh, sure! Sorry, Tang. Maybe next time.” He scattered away to help his brother. Wukong patted him on the shoulder, knowing something was wrong but not pushing the issue.
Sandy breathed deeply. That was almost too real. They were nothing alike.
He sorted out the differences in his head.
Tang was loud, Tripitaka was quiet.
Tripitaka was all about manners while Tang could care less.
Tripitaka did not give crass jokes while Tang did.
The only similarity there was they would never care about Sandy in a million years.
So many differences yet still one and the same, it left Sandy reigning in his tears.
37 notes
·
View notes