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lunar-wandering · 1 year

Text

"what the fuck is the mech doing here"

Summary:

"Uh, congrats on the kid, I guess?"

"Monkey King, I'm too young to be a father."

Or, in which Monkey Mech is sentient.

Word Count: 15k

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Three days.

That's how long it had been since Monkey Mech had woken up.

It had been a rather boring three days, if he had been honest.

(He?? They?? She?? No, 'he' sounded right).

Nothing had truly happened, outside of that one event at the very beginning, when his creator had controlled him to destroy the Demon Bull King (he's fairly sure that that's what that guy had been called, but he could be wrong for all he knew). Or, well, not destroying him, he supposed, more so defeating him. He didn't think the Demon Bull King had actually died. No, he was pretty sure the Demon Bull Family had all escaped without any deaths.

The lack of any deaths, civilian or otherwise, was an honest miracle, Monkey Mech was pretty sure. After all, he'd had a while to think about it, having remained standing in front of the large, smoking, empty crater that he and his creator's final attack had left on the ground. He hadn't had much else to look at.

A few people had stopped by, a couple of times. Some had been observing the crater- Monkey Mech figured they were some kind of official people, from the way they were dressed. He wasn't... entirely sure how he knew that their outfits made them official people. He didn’t know where that information was coming from, but he was fairly sure that it was right. Probably.

...He should ask someone about that sooner or later. Of course, that’d only be once he got the chance, to talk to someone.

There'd been some other people who had shown up. Most had been seemingly curious civilians who had taken the opportunity to try and get a selfie with him. Not that it was really hard, as he was standing perfectly still, but he had still had to witness some people take hours trying to find the perfect shot to get as much of him in the frame as possible. Monkey Mech didn't really think that was necessary.

After all, why take a picture with him, when they should really be taking a picture of his creator?

Speaking of his creator, he had not actually seen him since the day of his creation. Him, Pigsy, Tang, Sandy, and Mei, (how did he know those names? He'd never truly met them. Was this leftover information from his creator?), had all left the scene shortly after the Demon Bull King's defeat, leaving Monkey Mech by himself.

All alone.

Standing still.

Which he had remained doing for the past three days.

...Okay, so maybe he was just the tiniest bit spiteful about that. Like, come on. He was starting to get restless!! He couldn't just stay like this forever! He wasn't some sort of inanimate statue, he needed to move!!

Of course, he supposed that he could just move at any time. Whenever he wanted to. But there was a reason why he hadn't.

Just one reason. (Definitely only the one. There wasn’t… anything else. Definitely).

And it was really quite simple.

The humans around him, including his own creator, did not believe him to be sentient.

He was quite certain about this. Considering the way people had been treating him when they walked up for selfies, and the way he had caught some of those official people muttering something along the lines of “what should we do with the tin can?” it was fairly obvious that the people thought he could not think for himself.

And it seemed like his creator likely subscribed to that theory as well, considering he hadn't shown up to check on him yet.

...Not that he could truly blame him for it. Monkey Mech supposed he hadn't given his creator any proof as to otherwise during their brief amount of time together. So it made sense that he simply would not know.

And, well. Monkey Mech... didn't want to frighten anyone. Or, at the very least, didn't want to go against their expectations. He didn't really know how the humans would react if they discovered the giant robot was, y'know, capable of thought and had free-will. It was probably better for everyone's sakes to pretend that that wasn't the case.

...And also he didn't want to have to explain the standing around for three days thing. In truth, complete and honest truth, initially he had frozen up because he didn't know what to do, how to interact with his creator and his friends, and then they had left before he could figure it out, and then other people came around, and, well.

Monkey Mech had an inkling that, for some reason, he'd probably get teased if it was revealed that he had stood around completely still for three days because he was shy.

(Despite not even knowing her, something about Mei gave off that kind of vibe to him).

(Once again, possibly leftover remnants from his creator? Monkey Mech wasn't sure).

Still though, it had taken everything in him not to turn around when he heard his creator's voice again.

“Okay team!” MK yelled, arriving at the edge of the crater, dropping a table he had been carrying onto the ground in front of him and spreading out a blue sheet of paper on top of it. “It's go time!”

The others congregated around him, and Monkey Mech felt curiosity overtake him. Exactly what was his creator doing back here, now?

Patiently, he waited until the whole group was seemingly occupied looking over MK's shoulder, at what he was drawing on the paper, and then, making sure there were no civilians or anyone else around that could possibly see, Monkey Mech slowly and carefully bent over to try and get a better look.

(...He supposed it didn't really matter if a civilian happened to see. After all, since his creator was here, they'd likely assume that MK was the one moving him around. There wasn't much danger in that.

No, it was MK and his friends that he had to be careful of).

He was glad they had chosen to stand in a place that was already covered by his shadow, as it meant none of them noticed his shadow shifting to cover them more.

It... seemed like MK was designing some kind of blueprint?

Pigsy mumbled something, to which MK laughed- but what they were saying was so quiet that, at his height, Monkey Mech couldn't hear them.

He leaned down a little closer.

Mei seemed to bristle, and Monkey Mech took the warning for what it was and quickly returned to his prior position before she could turn around.

Her piercing stare settled upon him, almost kind of frightening, and it was only through three days worth of practice that Monkey Mech didn't instinctively fidget.

After a few seconds of analysis, she slowly turned back around, looping an arm over MK's shoulder as she pointed at something on the blueprint.

If it was possible for Monkey Mech to breathe a sigh of relief, he would have.

After a few minutes, just for safety, he started to lean down again- moving a lot slower this time than before. He wasn't entirely sure as to what had notified Mei that he had moved, so he wanted to be extra careful.

Thankfully, it seemed that he went unnoticed this time, as he was able to lean much further down than before- able to get a better look at what his creator was designing.

It looked like... buildings?

Monkey Mech glanced up at the crater in front of him, and then back down at the blueprints.

Huh.

By his calculations, the buildings in the blueprints would fit inside of the crater perfectly.

...Why was his creator designing the official replacement buildings for this area? Shouldn't that be the job of some government designer, or something?

...Now that he thought about it, were government designers even a thing? He was sure that there were some people who had designing as a job, but he couldn't recall if there was a government position for it or not.

Well, there probably was. Maybe. There were government positions for restaurants after all! Why else would Pigsy have so much authority?

...Something about that didn't feel quite right, but as it was, Monkey Mech didn't have enough facts to be able to dispute it, so, he supposed he should just be better safe than sorry and consider it true.

That still didn't answer why MK was designing these buildings though.

Oh, Monkey Mech really wished he could just ask him. But they all looked so focused on what they were doing, he didn't want to disturb them, and he especially didn't want to make them angry.

(He didn't truly want to admit it, but Mei's stare had been outright terrifying. Despite being a giant robot, he had actually felt threatened. He was certain that he absolutely did not want to get on her bad side).

So, he really had no choice other than to sit there quietly observing.

He was just starting to become entranced in the way MK drew the swooping lines for his designs when Mei abruptly turned around again.

This time, Monkey Mech was not as fast as he should've been.

He returned to his prior position standing up, yes, but it was obvious that Mei had caught the movement this time around, if the way her jaw dropped was any indication.

The both of them stood perfectly still for a moment, Mei's jaw slowly closing as she seemingly processed what she had seen. Monkey Mech stared back down at her.

And then she was opening her mouth again, in the process of turning around to, most likely, inform the others, and Monkey Mech panicked.

Bending down slightly again, he waved his hands silently, pausing for a moment before making a shushing motion. Mei froze again, but-

Tang had seemed to notice Mei's actions, and turned around to see what she was looking at.

The next few minutes, despite Monkey Mech's panicked shushing movements, were a clean and simple chain reaction.

Tang, in his shock, took a step back, bumping into Sandy, who automatically turned to stabilize him, thus seeing Monkey Mech in motion. While the river demon did not react with shock, per say, he did seem surprised, and immediately nudged Pigsy, lightly, on the shoulder, prompting the pig demon to turn around as well.

Monkey Mech found himself being stared at by all four members of his creator's friends and family.

He could feel his joints start to lock up- causing his motions to slow down. If he was human, he was certain that he'd likely be sweating from anxiety right now.

None of them had said a single word.

MK still hadn't noticed. He was completely in his own little world, happily drawing on the blueprints, seemingly having no clue what was going on.

That, unfortunately for Monkey Mech, didn't last long.

Mei put a hand on MK's shoulder.

“Hm? What's up-” MK cut himself off with a strangled noise as Mei abruptly spun him around, outright picking him up off the ground in order to do so. He didn't let go of his pencil, still holding it in one hand like he was about to continue drawing. “What was that fo-”

Monkey Mech froze completely as his creator's eyes locked onto him, but it was far too late.

“Oh.” MK said, completely deadpan.

And then he opened his mouth and screamed.

Within instants, everyone was screaming. Monkey Mech, surprised by the sudden action, screamed too, and that just seemed to make the other's scream louder-

On a logical level, Monkey Mech knew exactly why they were screaming.

But, for a brief second, pure instinct took over, the want to protect that was literally written into his very being activating.

Not even thinking about it, he scooped the group up into his hands and ran.

It wasn't until he was sitting behind an abandoned building, glancing over the top of it (rather easily, as he was much taller than said building) for any sign of danger, that he realized what he had just done.

He turned his head back to look down at the group in his hands just in time for MK to summon the staff, seemingly moving to attack him-

Only to very clearly overbalance, as the staff grew larger and connected with Monkey Mech's head with even less force than if he had been lightly flicked on the forehead.

The staff automatically shrank back to more comfortably sit within MK's hands as everyone went completely still.

Monkey Mech blinked.

“...Was that really necessary?” He asked, and everyone quite promptly started freaking out once more.

“Holy shit, you can talk?!” The staff vanished into golden light as MK's hands moved to grasp at his hair in clear distress. “The mech can talk?!”

“Yes, I can talk.” Monkey Mech had to admit, he sounded a lot calmer than he actually was. Well, he supposed that would probably work in his favour.

“Why didn't you say anything before?” Mei asked- seemingly taking over the questioning as MK suddenly looked like he was having a crisis of world-ending proportions.

“You didn't ask me anything?” In truth, it was, well, as previously stated, because Monkey Mech hadn't known what to say, and was quite frankly too nervous to attempt it.

But he wasn't just going to tell them that.

“Why.” MK whispered, and it was only because he was holding them all so close to his face that Monkey Mech was able to hear him.

“Why what?”

“Why did you just stand there???” MK clarified, and Monkey Mech was so glad that he had not actually been built with the ability to form facial expressions, cause he was certain that if he had, the one he would be making now would've been very revealing.

“...The view was nice?” Oh, he should not have said anything. His voice had been steady beforehand, but now there was a certain tone to it that made even him able to tell that it sounded nervous.

There was a collective deadpan look, all of them clearly knowing that what he just said was very much not the truth, but there seemed to be a collective decision to not mention it yet (hopefully it would never be mentioned again, ever-), as MK suddenly removed his hands from his hair, a look of determination in his face.

“I need to go get Monkey King.” There was a bright golden flash, and then suddenly he was gone. Monkey Mech could just barely make out the visual of him struggling to pole vault with the staff in the distance, occasionally being thrown way up into the air.

...His creator should really have someone help him learn how to control that better before he goes off trying to vault across the ocean on his own, he was probably likely to fall in the water with the way he was doing it.

But, Monkey Mech realized, that was not the priority right now.

He glanced back down at his hands, where the remaining four stood staring up at him.

“Uhhh.” He didn't like how quiet they were being. What did people do when they were in this kind of situation? “...Hi? I'm... Monkey Mech?”

MK arrived at Flower Fruit Mountain with a bang- as he crashed into the beach.

Groaning, he pulled himself up out of the small impact crater he had left behind, shaking sand out of his hair and wringing ocean water out of his jacket.

(He hadn't exactly... perfected the art of vaulting across the ocean, yet. He had, unfortunately, lost his grip, and ended up taking a little dip on the way there).

Straightening himself out, he rushed up the stairs to the waterfall cave as quickly as he could.

“Monkey King!!” He yelled, as soon as he was past the waterfall entrance, “Are you in here?”

There was a loud crash, like something falling over, and MK winced.

“Just a second, kid!” There was a bright flash, and, as soon as MK had blinked, there Wukong was, standing in front of him. “What's up? Surely there can't be another world ending crisis already- besides, you could definitely handle it on your own!”

“That's not the issue.” MK sighed, opening his mouth-

“Oh, is this about me training you then? I thought I left a letter in your apartment telling you when we could start that-”

“Yes, yes! I read that- starting this weekend. Yes. I'm very excited for it actually! But this isn't about that.” MK said. Wukong opened his mouth as though he was about to speak again, and MK quickly reached out, slamming a hand over top of Wukong's mouth, preventing him from saying a word. “Could you just let me finish what I have to say?”

Wukong gave a nod, and MK slowly pulled his hand back.

“...What was I gonna-” With all of Wukong's distractions, MK had almost forgotten- “Oh, right- Monkey Mech is sentient!!!”

“Yeah, he is.” Wukong summoned his cloud, back flipping into it, laying down casually, like this fact wasn't a surprise to him. He even went as far as to pull out a bag of peach chips and start eating them before he noticed the incredulous look that MK was giving him. “...Did. Did you not know?”

“You knew?!?!” If anything, MK seemed more distressed than he had been before at this discovery.

“Uh, yeah? I could sense the life energy in him from the beginning, when you made him.” Wukong's tail swung back and forth with a nervousness that MK did not pick up on. “I thought you knew.”

“Well I didn't!! I only found out today!”

“...Uh, congrats on the kid, I guess?” The joke did not land, if the way MK collapsed down onto his knees was any indication. “Woah, hey-”

“Monkey King, I'm too young to be a father.” MK muttered, seemingly in despair. Wukong reluctantly got off of his cloud to hesitantly pat him on the shoulder.

“...You can be his brother, then?” Wukong tried, and, shockingly enough, this attempt seemed to almost kind of work.

“I've always kind of wanted a younger sibling…” MK trailed off, looking back up at Wukong. “But, Monkey King, this is a giant robot we're talking about. Like, giant!”

“So?”

“He can't even fit in the Noodle Shop!!”

“That's your biggest concern?!?!”

Monkey Mech being alive, surprisingly, was a concept that took very little adjustment to. People seemed to accept things as the new normal far too quickly in this city, in Monkey Mech's opinion. He thought there'd be more of an uproar than this.

Of course, that didn't mean that there hadn't been challenges. In just the one week since his sentience had been discovered, there had already been a group that had tried to run him out of the city.

'No Giant Robots Allowed!' Had seemed to be their catchphrase.

After one meeting with them, however, their leader had mumbled; “Well, I guess he seems rather polite”, and the issue had been dropped.

Of course, there still was the general concern about the overall destruction he might cause, even if it was accidental, which, Monkey Mech found that concern entirely fair. So, he did his utmost best to stay in one section of the city, mainly around the parts that had already been destroyed by the battle against the Demon Bull King, and, when venturing out, made sure to stick to the same paths- usually stepping into the footprints he had previously left behind, so as to not create more damage.

Really, the only reason he had for venturing out anyways was to go and visit his crea- (“MK, call me MK. Hearing myself be called your 'creator' just feels... wrong, for some reason.”)- no, MK, at the Noodle Shop. And, even then, most of the time the others just came around to visit him, instead, so he didn't really need to go anywhere.

(There had been, some kind of... vibe when he had first shown up outside the Noodle Shop. Pigsy had offered him some noodles, and Monkey Mech had allowed the tiny bowl to balance on his pinky finger for a good five minutes before something seemed to click in the other's mind.

”Can you even eat?“ Pigsy had asked.

”No, but I like to feel included!“ Monkey Mech had been genuinely happy at the time, but the energy coming from the others…

It had felt a little sad.

Monkey Mech didn't like it.

So he much preferred it when the others would come and visit him, instead).

He had never gone further than the Noodle Shop.

Which was why he hesitated when a commotion started up over at what he was pretty sure was the Weather Station.

He stood, in the middle of a street, ignoring the sound of traffic carefully moving around his feet as he stared down the road. He'd never gone down this way.

But... something was definitely happening down there. He couldn't just ignore it. What if MK was in trouble? They might need his help.

(Or, well, maybe not. He was pretty sure that they could handle themselves, most likely. But that didn't stop him from being worried).

A louder bang came from the Weather Station, and Monkey Mech made his choice.

Carefully, he started walking down the street to the Weather Station.

He kept his eyes on the road below him, paying close attention to make sure that he didn't accidentally step on top of a person- or their car.

(Someone who's car he'd stepped on had been a very vocal part of the 'No Giant Robots Allowed!' group. Monkey Mech would rather avoid going through that whole experience again if he could, thank you very much).

It wasn't until he was directly in front of the Weather Station that he realized that this building was actually slightly taller than him. Carefully, not wanting to knock himself off balance (falling down when he was surrounded by so many buildings was most definitely a worst case scenario), Monkey Mech stood up on his tippy toes in order to look inside.

MK wasn't there, but Mei, Tang, Pigsy, and Sandy were. They were all tied up, and seemed to be varying levels of mad about it. The Demon Bull King's son, Red Son, happened to also be there, sitting in the chair at the Weather Station's computer. All of them had their backs turned to him.

Well. This was a less than ideal situation.

Monkey Mech reached out, to attempt to gently tap on the glass to get the attention of one of his friends- and quietly ask them how he could help out.

Unfortunately, things did not turn out that way, as his 'gentle tap' completely shattered the window, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

“...Oops.” He quickly withdrew his hand. “I... didn't mean to do that.”

“What…” Red Son muttered, and then continued, much louder than before; “What the fuck is the mech doing here?”

“Hey!!” Mei yelled, looking outright feral, “Watch your fucking language around the mech!”

“...You guys say the f-word all the time though?” Monkey Mech's head tilted to the side in confusion. Red Son looked absolutely flabbergasted at the situation, and Tang turned to the side, seemingly to hide laughter.

“Holy shit, he censored it.” Mei said.

“Say 'fuck' Monkey Mech.” MK chimed in.

“Do it Monkey Mech, say fu-” Mei started to continue, but was interrupted.

“I don't have the time for this nonsense-” Red Son said, his head in his hands, before he paused, and slowly raised his head, blinking, as his eyes locked onto MK. “What the fuck- when did you get back here?!?”

“Oh, around the same time Monkey Mech absolutely destroyed the window.”

“I said I didn't mean to!!”

It had been a few days since what Mei had promptly dubbed the “MK Clone Revolution” incident- which was a rather uncreative name, but Tang's idea of “Duplicatnation” had been outvoted. In all honesty, MK had felt a little bad to have to get rid of all the clones, especially the more sentient ones, like Painter, Delivery, and Porty... they had almost given off a vibe rather similar to Monkey Mech, if he was being honest.

Even so, that hadn't stopped him from making a clone or two to help him out with a few things.

He just made sure that he didn't leave them around for too long! He even had Mei develop a little check in system to make sure that he hadn't left any clones unaccounted for.

“Clone Check!” Mei yelled, appearing out of nowhere behind him, and it was only due to the fact that MK had grown used to this behavior over the years that he didn't startle. “How many clones did you make today?”

“Mmm, three?” MK was fairly sure that sounded about right. It had been a pretty busy day- between his third training session with the Monkey King that morning and the intense rush hour that afternoon, he'd needed a bit of an extra hand (or, well, hands) with things.

“Okay, and, did you dismiss all of them?” Mei asked.

And MK... paused.

He... couldn't remember.

Had he dismissed the clones he made today?

Apparently his silence was answer enough, as Mei narrowed her eyes dangerously.

“MK...”

“I don't remember.” MK admitted, “But, y'know, I probably did, right?”

He winced as Mei gave him a Look.

“Alright, alright.” He said, before letting out a sigh. “I... probably didn't dismiss them.”

Mei sighed too.

“Guess we're going on a clone hunt.”

It was quickly discovered that there were far too many places within the city for a hair clone to hide. Over two hours had passed, and between him and Mei, neither of them had found a single clone. It was getting rather frustrating honestly- this was eating into MK's free time. Well, he supposed that was a valuable lesson to himself; don't leave a hair-clone active unless you want to waste hours in the city searching for it.

Eventually, their search led them to the outskirts of the construction area- where people were working to repair the damage MK, Monkey Mech, and Demon Bull King had inadvertently caused. (MK was just glad that his only punishment was to design the new buildings, not pay for them. The Demon Bull Family was the one charged with the financial aspect of it, thankfully). Monkey Mech usually hung around in this area- he said it was to stay away from buildings he could actually damage, and to help with the construction efforts, but MK was pretty sure it was actually because there were less people over here. He had a niggling suspicion that the giant robot was, for some reason, shy.

(This suspicion was only strengthened by how Monkey Mech still continued to avoid answering the question of why he had chosen to stand around perfectly still for three days. The longer they went without a proper answer, the more MK was certain that the mech was almost embarrassed about it, which, on some level, was kind of hilarious if you thought about it).

Sure enough, in their search, they eventually stumbled across Monkey Mech, who was sitting on the ground, seemingly doing nothing.

(...Weird. For some reason, MK could swear that the background soundtrack was oddly louder in this area...)

“Hey! Mecha-dude!” Mei called, catching the robot's attention. “Have you seen any rogue MK-clones running around?”

“First of all, it's Monkey Mech. Secondly... no. I haven't seen any MK other than the one beside you.” Monkey Mech said.

“Huh. Guess... they're not in this area.” Mei let out a groan, leaning on MK's shoulder to take weight off of her own feet. MK allowed her to do so without protest. “Ughhh, where could they be? We've been searching all over for them…”

“I don't know, Mei.” Was it MK's imagination, or was the soundtrack getting louder? “Maybe they... happened to 'poof' on their own? Hair-clones can't actually stand up to much stress, physically.”

No, yeah, the soundtrack was definitely getting louder.What was up with that?

“I think the hair-clones would know fully well what they can and cannot do without 'poofing', MK.”

“Ehh, I'm not so sure-”

Man, that was really loud. What was up with the-

Wait.

That wasn't the soundtrack.

MK turned on his heel to face Monkey Mech, not missing how the giant robot seemed to nervously startle at his action.

“And what is in your cockpit young man?!?!” MK shouted to be heard over the music, pointing at Monkey Mech in accusation. The music stuttered for a moment and then died out, Monkey Mech slouching slightly as the entrance to his chest opened-

Revealing Delivery, Painter, and Porty to be standing inside- slightly tangled with one another, as though they had been arguing.

They quickly straightened up when they saw that MK and Mei were staring at them though.

“Oh, uh. Hi, OG.” Porty avoided eye-contact, the other two clones following his lead and mimicking his actions. “How's it goin'?”

“Where have you three been?” MK asked, a note of exasperation leaking into his voice. “We've been searching for you three for hours.”

“Well, we've just... been here. Chillin' with big bro mech.” Porty said, lightly knocking his knuckles against the side of Monkey Mech. MK looked up at Monkey Mech expectantly.

Monkey Mech sighed.

“They're kinda like... well, they feel a bit like younger siblings to me.” He said, reaching a hand up for the three clones to jump onto, carefully and gently moving them back down to the ground. “They ended up wandering over here and wanted to hang out before you 'poofed' them away.”

“Well, you could've told us about it.” Mei huffed, “We went on a three hour long goose chase looking for them.”

Monkey Mech and the clones all hung their heads as though they'd been admonished, and MK let out a world weary sigh.

“Just... tell us about it next time, okay?” He said, pretending not to notice how both the clones and Monkey Mech brightened at the mention of a 'next time'. “I don't want to have to go searching all across the city again.”

The three clones saluted him, and Monkey Mech quickly copied their action.

...MK hoped he wouldn't regret this.

Monkey Mech didn't need to sleep. This, however, did not stop him from daydreaming.

Which, of course, is why he startled when his inner comms device suddenly rang.

“Hello, hello?” Mei's voice came through, “Testing, testing… Monkey Mech?”

“...Hi?” Monkey Mech said, slowly. He... didn't know his comms could do that, actually. Considering Mei had contacted him with them, he probably shouldn't tell her that, though.

“Oh good, it worked!” Mei said, “Anyways though, we've got a tiny bit of a situation.”

Well. That was never good.

“What's up?”

“Y'see, Tang and Pigsy have been kinda kidnapped.”

“...Kinda kidnapped?”

“Yeah, by some kind of spider-demon, apparently.”

A full body shiver suddenly made it's way through Monkey Mech's non-existent spine. He wasn't even sure he knew what a spider was, but just hearing the word was enough to convince him that he did not like it in the slightest.

Mei seemed to be completely unaware of this, thankfully, as she continued.

“She's down in the sewers, so we're starting a little rescue mission, but, well, MK is kinda scared of spiders, so we were wondering if you could lend an extra hand, somehow.” She said, and Monkey Mech could just barely make out the sound of MK saying something about spiders in the background- something about being tiny with lots of legs?

Yeah.

Monkey Mech did not like the sound of that. He wanted to help, that was what he was for, but…

...Mei had said that the spider-demon was 'down in the sewers'. Well, in that case…

“There isn't an entrance to the sewers that I can fit through.” Monkey Mech said, “And I don't exactly wanna destroy a city street just to get down there...you should probably save me as an absolute last resort.”

“Oh. Yeah, you're right. Y'know, sometimes, I forget just how big you are.” Mei said, and Monkey Mech did his best not to wince. “Sorry for bothering you! We'll contact you again if we need you to do some... demolition.”

Monkey Mech did not like the way she said that, but didn't get the chance to respond, as she hung up almost immediately afterwards. After a few seconds, he let out a sigh (he couldn't actually exhale air as a sigh, but something about making the sound of one did help to release some tension, somehow, so he kept doing it), feeling like he had just dodged a bullet-

“What are you up to, buddy?”

Monkey Mech jumped, cringing as the buildings around him briefly shook from the motion. Paying attention to his surroundings, out of the corner of his eye, he could just make out the Monkey King standing on his shoulder.

“N-not much.” Monkey Mech hadn't actually interacted with Wukong, outside of that one time the monkey had stood on top of him before turning into a bird and flying off. He had sensed the Monkey King's magic then, but other than that, he'd never had any contact with him, so... “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I'm just checking a few things out.” Wukong said, sitting down, swinging his legs back and forth. “Where's the kid and his friends?”

“...Tang and Pigsy got kidnapped by some kind of... spider-demon. In the sewers. So MK, Mei, and Sandy are gonna go save 'em.” Monkey Mech explained, Wukong nodding along with every word.

“Ahh, Spider Queen, huh? So she's hiding out in the sewers? Good to know.” Wukong said, “Well, since everyone else is gone…”

Before Monkey Mech could properly react, one of Wukong's feet swung back with much more force than before, whacking him, and causing the door on his chest to swing open on instinct. Within seconds, Wukong had swung down and flipped his way into the cockpit, the door automatically closing behind him.

“Wha- hold on! What are you doing?!” It took all of Monkey Mech's strength not to move as Wukong started pressing buttons and moving the controls. “Hey!”

“I've always wanted to try driving a mech.” Wukong said, pulling one control stick back. Monkey Mech couldn't stop himself from lifting one arm in response. “Ooh so that's how that one works-”

“Okay, just, wait a second!” Monkey Mech forcibly brought his arms down, shaking with the effort not to move as Wukong kept messing around. “Just- can we at least move somewhere where there aren't so many buildings first?”

“Huh, why?” Wukong asked, sounding genuinely confused, before realization seemed to finally hit him. “Ohhh, property damage. And mortals. Right. Okay, yeah sure. I know someplace where we can go.”

And that, was how Monkey Mech ended up following Sun Wukong's instructions to a nice, large, abandoned clearing a good 20 minutes outside the outskirts of town.

“Right, we shouldn't bother anybody out here.” Wukong said, “Now come on, I wanna test this whole thing out!”

Monkey Mech glanced around for a second, double checking to make sure that no-one else was around, before he let out another audible sigh, just to let the Monkey King know exactly what he thought about all this, and then let Sun Wukong take control.

(Later, after calculating the exact number of trees they had accidentally uprooted, as well as the damage done to the ground, both Wukong and Monkey Mech agreed that Wukong should not be allowed to take the controls unless it was in the case of an absolute emergency).

Monkey Mech didn't normally get summoned for any kind of problem. He was rather big, after all, and his fighting style caused a lot of destruction. It was, usually, a better option for him not to get involved.

He knew this. He knew MK and the others knew this.

Which was why he rushed to MK's location at top speed the instant he felt the calling magic from the staff activate.

He had sensed that something was wrong all day. Or, for the past week, really. There'd been something off with MK, definitely, for sure. Some kind of magic that hadn't been there before. MK had vaguely mentioned having a bonus teacher “giving him a few extra pointers” when he had asked, so Monkey Mech had mostly shrugged it off.

However, he had also noticed... something strange about the overall magic in the city.

Over the past two days, the magic levels in the city had spiked. By, a lot. And the temperature levels seemed to be dropping too, for some reason.

Monkey Mech could only assume that the Demon Bull Family were up to something again. Something of this scale seemed like their forte. However, with his size, he couldn't exactly pull off any kind of investigation, so he had to leave it be.

As he jumped down into a giant hole in the ground and caught MK and Mei within his cockpit, though, he kinda wished he hadn't.

He didn't pay much attention to what MK and Mei were saying, instead observing his surroundings, as well as making sure that they didn't fall any further down the hole. Man, there sure were a lot of Demon Bull...Clones? Bots? Now that he thought about it, Monkey Mech wasn't sure what they were called.

Next thing he knew though, MK was falling back down the hole again, and Mei was maneuvering him back up to the top.

“Woah, hey, wait-” Monkey Mech said, even as he let Mei move his arm to deflect an attack away from himself. “What's going on?”

“Don't worry big guy, just let me handle this.” Was the only response he got, as Mei promptly threw herself entirely into fighting the enemy. Very quickly deciding there was no point in trying to get any kind of answer from her- she did have a tendency to be rather impulsive, sometimes even more so than MK and Wukong after all, Monkey Mech allowed her to do as she wished. The only time she paused, was when she happened to mess up a step, causing Monkey Mech to fall over backwards.

“Agh- sorry!” She said, even as she quickly readjusted while Monkey Mech stood back up.

“It's fine- you're doing better than Monkey King did, anyways.” Monkey Mech lifted a leg, lightly shaking off the Bull Clones(??) that had gathered there, sending them sprawling across the ground.

“Monkey King? When did he- ah, you know what, you'll have to tell me about that later, okay?!” Mei's tone left no room for argument, and Monkey Mech knew he would be forced to tell the whole story to her one way or another- despite the fact that he had told Sun Wukong that he “would keep the whole thing a secret”.

Well... it is in the nature of secrets to not stay secret forever, he supposed.

There was a large crash that was, most definitely, not fireworks.

Monkey Mech stood up almost immediately. From the outskirts of the city, he couldn't exactly see what was going on in the city center, and that... well, that worried him. He had picked this spot because it was far enough out that he wouldn't be in the way of any of the celebrations, but would still be able to hear everything, as well as see the fireworks, but now he worried that maybe this was to his disadvantage.

For a few moments, he wondered if maybe he had just heard wrong, if perhaps a stall had gotten knocked over or something, and the sound had just echoed louder than it should have. Maybe someone's generator blew a fuse?

The screaming proved that theory wrong.

He quickly started towards the center of the city- not daring to run, not quite yet (besides, he could cross the general area much faster than most cars could just by walking), when he caught a glimpse of Wukong and MK out of the corner of his eye.

He turned a bit, to put them in his sights better, just in time to watch MK completely freak out.

MK looked terrified.

Confusion ran through him. What could possibly freak MK out so much that he would-

Monkey Mech glanced back in front of him, and immediately came to a direct halt, a kind of fear he didn't even know he was capable of sweeping through him.

The shape of this-this mech. The way it was moving- the- it's legs-

Based on the way MK had reacted, there was no doubt in Monkey Mech's mind that this- this was a spider.

He felt almost sick at the sight of it, terror almost locking him in place. The spider-mech moved forwards, knocking into a building, sending debris falling to the ground.

He could've sworn one of it's various 'eyes' swirled around to look at him.

For once, Monkey Mech was glad for the general confusion and chaos of the panicking citizens.

Cause it meant that nobody noticed when he turned around and ran away.

“Hey, uh, has anyone seen Monkey Mech?” MK asked. The colours in the sky from the explosion were steadily beginning to fade, and MK had realized- “I don't think I've seen him in a while... He would've definitely heard the commotion, right? He usually always comes when there's some kind of trouble.”

“...Now that you mention it, no, I don't think I did see him.” Pigsy said. “You'd think a giant robot would be, y'know, easier to spot.”

“I can see where he normally hangs around from up here.” Mei curved her hands in front of her eyes like binoculars as she focused in on the direction of the construction-zone as well as the outskirts. “I don't see him at all…”

“...Strange.” MK muttered, standing up from the ledge of the building. “Maybe we should go look for him. It'd be bad if he'd gotten hit by some weird kinda robotic spider-virus or something.”

“I... don't think that's possible-” Tang started, but MK ignored him, instead heading for the stairwell. He was far too tired from the day's events to try pole vaulting around the city.

Soon enough, everyone had piled into Pigsy's van, and were driving to the outskirts of the city.

About halfway there, Mei pointed something out.

“Are those... Monkey Mech's footprints?” She asked, and Pigsy brought the van to a stop as they all turned to look. Sure enough, there were giant footprints in the ground- ones that abruptly turned around and went back in the direction that they had come from. Mei tilted her head to the side. “I don't... think this is one roads he normally goes down... Plus, he usually makes sure to step in the prints he already left, so as to not leave much damage behind…”

The sense that something must be wrong settled over them like a suffocating blanket.

Pigsy turned the van around and took off, following the footprints.

It turned out, Monkey Mech could cross quite a distance when he wanted to. It was a full hour and half before they found him- they'd even needed to go off road, following the trail of crushed trees and flattened bushes until they reached a fairly large, fairly destroyed, clearing.

(MK had worried, for a brief moment, before he realized that none of the damage seemed truly recent. Good. At least 'giant robot gone rogue' wasn't on the menu for today. With everything that had happened already, MK wasn't sure he would've been able to handle that).

Monkey Mech was sitting in the center, his legs pulled up to his chest, his tail held within his hands.

Overall, he looked a bit like an upset child.

MK was out of the van before it had even come to a complete halt.

“Monkey Mech!!” He yelled, wincing as Monkey Mech seemed to actually startle- the resulting small jump the giant robot did enough for the ground to shake, sending MK temporarily off balance. Seems like Monkey Mech hadn't heard the van.

...That was weird. Normally he was more aware of his surroundings.

“...Monkey Mech?” MK said again, gentler this time. “Is... everything okay?”

“Uh-” Monkey Mech's voice crackled a little bit, slightly staticky as he let go of his tail- but it only swished once before he seemed to think better of it and grabbed hold of it again. “I- yeah. Everything's fine. How'd uh- how'd the fight against Spider Queen go?”

“It's over now, but-” MK started, but was cut off by Pigsy.

“If you knew the city was being attacked by Spider Queen, then why didn't you come to help?” He asked, and Monkey Mech visibly shrunk back, seemingly trying to make himself smaller- a completely impossible task. Pigsy let out a sigh. “We're not mad at ya. We just want to know.”

Monkey Mech let out an electronic noise that, if MK didn't know better, would've almost sounded like a whine.

...The giant robot's next sentence was so filled with static that it was impossible to tell what he had just said.

“...You wanna try running that by us again, big guy?” Mei joked, and MK harshly nudged her in the side.

Monkey Mech made another static-filled noise.

And then, after a minute of heavy silence, there was a staticky sounding sigh.

“I'm…” Monkey Mech's voice was still filled with static, but at the very least was now understandable. He sounded...almost nervous. “I'm... afraid of spiders.”

“Oh.” MK said, ignoring the various looks and noises of disbelief from the others as he stepped forwards, using the staff to help himself up to stand on top of one of Monkey Mech's hands to be closer to eye-level with him. “Uh. You uh, probably got that from me. Sorry. But, hey!! Spider Queen and the others are gone now, so there's nothing to worry about!!”

That statement, for some reason, seemed to do very little to assure Monkey Mech, as he let out another static filled noise. MK sat down and tried to give off the best comforting vibes he could, watching out of the corner of his eye as the others started pulling out blankets and some snacks. Seemed like they were all aware that they were probably going to be here for a long while.

It was an hour before Monkey Mech spoke again.

“...I'm sorry.” He mumbled. MK, who had been leaning to the side, starting to fall asleep, jumped, before straightening up. Once Monkey Mech knew MK was paying attention to him, he repeated himself; “I'm sorry for running away.”

“Oh, hey- it's okay buddy.” MK said, gently patting Monkey Mech's hand. “Like Pigsy said, none of us are upset with you. Heck, if I was you, I probably would've done the same thing if that was my first encounter with a spider. Nobody blames you.”

“But what if you had needed me?” Monkey Mech asked- “What if you had called for me, and I didn't come?”

“I'm sure I'd find another way out.” MK swung his legs back and forth, creating a steady rhythm. “I have my friends with me after all. And, even if that had happened, I still wouldn't have been upset with you. Concerned, maybe, but not upset.”

This didn't seem to reassure Monkey Mech as much as MK had hoped- but the distressed energy he had been picking up from the robot started to slowly recede, so at the very least it was somewhat working.

Monkey Mech didn't speak again- MK wasn't entirely sure if he even believed what MK was telling him, but he wasn't outright arguing with it, so MK figured that there wasn't much else that he could do except wait.

...In the end, he must have ended up falling asleep, because when he next opened his eyes, he was laying on the ground, on the blanket with the others. Sitting up, he could see that Monkey Mech had moved slightly- unfurling from his previous curled up position into one that looked much more relaxed than before.

The sun was rising.

MK stared at him for a few moments more before laying back down, rolling over to curl in closer to Pigsy and Mei, and fell back asleep.

Everyone in town was asleep. All because of some stupid app.

Obviously, MK had to go to the Cloud to fix this.

...But before that…

Well, he wanted to check in on Monkey Mech first. Everyone had simply fallen asleep after all, there wouldn't have been any screaming, Monkey Mech probably wouldn't even know that there was a crisis at hand. So, deciding to put his plans to, y'know, save everyone, on hold for a brief second, MK vaulted to the outskirts of the city.

It was rather easy to find Monkey Mech this time around- he was standing beside a nearly finished building, his tail slowly swinging from side to side a little bit- MK wondered if Monkey Mech had to physically hold back from letting his tail swish more.

Well, at least he didn't seem to be asleep. (Could Monkey Mech even sleep? Now that MK thought about it, he didn't think he had ever seen, or heard of, Monkey Mech sleeping. Huh. Maybe he should ask him about that. If he was capable of sleep, the fact that he hadn't was... kinda concerning).

Anyways, right now, Monkey Mech not being asleep was a good thing.

MK landed on the rooftop of the building beside him, waving to get his attention.

“Yo!! Monkey Mech!!” MK called, and Monkey Mech, thankfully, didn't startle, instead just turning to face him. “You doing okay?”

Monkey Mech gave him a thumbs up.

“...Alright, good.” Something about this seemed...a bit off, but MK wasn't entirely sure what specifically was wrong, yet. “Um. Are you aware of what's going on in the city?”

Another thumbs up.

“Oh, so you know that everyone's fallen asleep because of that video game?”

Yet again, a thumbs up.

...Oh. That's what was wrong.

“...Why aren't you talking?” MK asked, and the slight swaying of Monkey Mech's tail immediately froze. “Is something wrong-”

“I'm fi--ine.” Monkey Mech's voice seemed to almost glitch mid-way through the word, going staticky and skipping a little- like a broken CD player. “Nothin--ng's wro--ong.”

“Uh-huh. Yeah. Suuuure.” MK said, leaning against his staff with the most deadpan pose he could muster. “Really believable, Monkey Mech. Now, tell me. What's up with your voice?”

“My voi--ice? Nothing's u--up with my vo--oice.”

MK didn't bother responding to that, instead fixing Monkey Mech with the best 'Disappointed Pigsy' look he could muster. (He'd never quite been able to nail the expression, but there had been people who had told him it was rather effective anyways, so...).

Sure enough, it only took a minute or so before Monkey Mech caved.

“...I'm no--ot as unaff--fected by the vi--rus as I see-em.” He finally said, sounding slightly defeated. “Bu--ut I can't sle-eep, so...”

“So it's just... making you glitch out?” MK asked, and got a thumbs up in return. “Hm. Well. That's. Less than ideal.”

“You're tel--lling me...” Monkey Mech mumbled, crossing his arms. MK let out a sigh.

“Okay. Okay.” He said. “Alright. I gotta get to the Cloud. The only real issue seems to be your voice so... keep an eye out to make sure nothing else happens?”

Monkey Mech saluted him, and MK saluted back, and then spun his staff and slammed it into the ground.

“You named me after what.” Monkey Mech deadpanned, looking down at where MK and Mei were standing in front of an arcade game with a very familiar name. MK laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Yeah, well... it's what you're designed after, after all.” He said, “I didn't know you were going to be, like, sentient. Alive. I would've picked a more serious name for you then instead of just. Y'know, what you are. You're... fine with this name though, right? We can always change it if you want to.”

This...gave Monkey Mech pause.

Did he want a different name?

...Maybe if MK had asked him that at the start, he would have, but, now, quite frankly…

“Nah, I think I'm too used to this one.” He said, “I'm fine with it. I just, can't believe I never noticed that I shared a name with the video game you're always playing before, though.”

“I mean, you are rather big.” Mei said, “It makes sense you wouldn't be able to see the letters on the screen down here.”

That... was true. While he could read, oftentimes, Monkey Mech wasn't sure what most signs or written letters said- simply because they were too small for him to actually see.

However…

“Can I watch you two play?” He asked, carefully kneeling down. “This arcade screen...seems big enough. I'll probably be able to see it.”

“Oh, sure!” MK said, before muttering to himself, “I wonder if we could somehow make a controller and screen large enough so that you could play it too...”

...Yeah. Monkey Mech wondered that too.

Honestly, there were a lot of things that he frequently missed out on, just due to being too big. Going to movies, hanging out in the Noodle Shop, playing video games... yeah. There wasn't exactly much that he could do.

Sometimes he wished he was smaller.

As it was, he would have to settle for this, doing his best to focus in on the tiny screen in order to take in every single detail of the video game his creation had apparently been inspired by.

Mei woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a large boom, immediately followed by shaking.

She got out of bed as fast as possible, grabbing her jacket but not bothering to change out of her pajamas as she raced to the door- a large crash and shaking in the middle of the night could only mean one thing.

There was some serious mystic monkey business going on.

Swinging a leg over her motorbike, she turned on the engine, switching her phone on and checking the most recent social media to find out where the attack was taking place.

Only to find… nothing?

Sure, there were some posts, mainly from her general area, about a large crash and shaking, some even asking if there had been an earthquake, but nobody was mentioning an actual incident.

...Huh. Maybe it really had just been a normal explosion, or earthquake-

That idea was promptly dismissed as there was another large boom, and the ground shook again. This time, Mei was awake enough to be able to somewhat pinpoint what direction the sound had originated from.

Pocketing her phone and revving her bike, Mei pulled out of the driveway and drove out of the city.

Over the next hour and a half, she thought she'd picked the wrong direction a few times- or that maybe whatever was going on was now over and dealt with. That thought was always overruled, as another large boom would ring out, followed by more shaking- sometimes closer together, and sometimes further apart.

It was when the booms started to get loud enough to the point she had to put headphones on that she noticed the giant footprints on the ground.

Hm. Well, that certainly painted a scenario, but she wasn't going to make any assumptions just yet.

But, as it turned out, her assumptions would've been right anyways, as she pulled into a very familiar clearing, turning off her bike and hopping off of it, staring up at Monkey Mech.

He hadn't seemed to have noticed her yet, too preoccupied with-

He moved suddenly, with enough force to make the ground shake- as well as knock Mei completely off balance, tumbling to the ground, her headphones slipping off her head. She remained on her back for a moment, briefly dazed, her ears ringing, only just managing to catch a glimpse of Monkey Mech starting up another movement out of the corner of her eye.

“Ah- wait!” She yelled out just in time, Monkey Mech freezing before his foot could make contact with the ground. “Monkey Mech!”

Slowly, Monkey Mech turned around, with a lot more carefulness and precision than he’d had in his previous motions. He carefully knelt down once he caught sight of her, the ground still shaking with his actions, but not nearly as bad.

“...Mei?” He asked, and she could just pick up the slightest bit of hesitance and nervousness in his voice. “What are you doing out here?”

“That's what I should be asking you!” Mei pushed herself off the ground, wiping dirt and grass stains off of her pajamas. “You woke me up, I'll have you know.”

“Woke you up- ah. The, uh, the noise?”

“And the shaking, yes. Nearly knocked my shelves off of the walls, the entire west side of the city thought there was an earthquake!” Mei said, stretching her arms above her head for a second, before letting them drop back down to her sides. “What are you doing all the way out here anyways?”

“Oh, uh, nothing much”” Monkey Mech said, and Mei raised an eyebrow. Monkey Mech looked away from her. “...I'm sorry. I thought I was far enough away that nobody in the city would be affected.”

“Maybe the other parts wouldn't, but the entire west side certainly was.”

Monkey Mech still wouldn't look at her. Mei slowly crossed her arms, analyzing him. Something was niggling on the back of her brain, but what-

The expression she made must have somehow given away the fact that she had figured it out, as Monkey Mech let out a groan, dropping his head into his hands, as Mei pointed a finger at him accusingly.

“You were copying the moves from the Monkey Mech video game, weren't you!!!” With the way she said it, it wasn't really a question, more so a triumphant realization. Monkey Mech made a noise filled with static, but didn't attempt to deny the accusation. Mei cackled, pulling her phone out of her pocket. “Oh, MK's going to love this!”

“...Must he know about it?” Monkey Mech asked, his head still covered by his hands. Mei's loud laughter was the only response he got, indicating that, no matter what, MK was definitely going to find out about this- and there was no point in trying to delay the inevitable.

Monkey Mech found MK sitting on top of an abandoned building, cross-legged, his staff sitting on his lap. He didn't seem to be doing anything, simply staring off into the distance, in the direction of the ocean.

He only tilted his head to the side slightly in acknowledgement when Monkey Mech came to a stop beside the building. There was silence for a few moments- Monkey Mech couldn't help but think something about MK just felt off today, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what.

But, after a bit of pondering it, he decided to brush that issue to the side.

He had a more important question after all.

“Soooo.” He started, drawing MK's full attention to him. “I heard you managed to shrink your staff?”

“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah- I can make myself go all tiny too, if I want.” For some reason, MK didn't sound as excited by that fact as he should have been, but Monkey Mech didn't think too much about it.

“Well, in that case…” Monkey Mech looked side to side, confirming that no-one else was around, before leaning closer towards MK. “Could you... make me smaller?”

“What?”

“Y'know, smaller! Like, person-size, preferably?” Monkey Mech couldn't keep the hope out of his voice. MK gave a sigh.

“I... I don't know.” He said, “Maybe I could, but... I don't want to try it. Risk it.”

“Why not?”

“Well, I made you, right?” The staff vanished into golden light as MK slowly stood up, turning to be able to face Monkey Mech fully. “You're created from like, my energy, or whatever. I just, I don't know if trying to make you smaller would like... mess with that. I don't want to risk losing you.”

Oh. That... was reasonable, Monkey Mech supposed.

He didn't exactly want to be 'lost' either.

“Besides…” MK muttered, under his breath, too low for Monkey Mech to hear. “We're going to need as many heavy-hitters as we can get.”

Something was wrong.

MK and the others had headed out to the desert to train today. Monkey Mech had considered following them, but had been explicitly told by MK to stay in the city, and keep an eye out for trouble. He was under no circumstances allowed to slack off today, apparently.

Monkey Mech had picked up on the fact that it seemed like MK had been more anxious lately. And it was starting to look like he'd had good reason to be.

The magic levels in the city spiked again- to numbers that went even higher than the last battle against the Demon Bull Family. Monkey Mech's sensors pinged as the temperature steadily started to drop.

But, weirdly enough, it didn't seem like the source of the magic spike was in the city.

Monkey Mech was in the middle of trying to place where exactly the magic source was coming from, when a bright flash of blue light shone from the corner of his eye.

The desert.

MK.

Monkey Mech didn't even think twice before abandoning his post, turning and starting to run in the direction he now knew the hauntingly cold magic spike to be coming from.

A pang rang through his chest, causing him to almost stumble. It felt like something had grabbed hold of the energy contained within him and squeezed it.

Something was happening to MK.

Monkey Mech started to move faster.

Even so, with the pangs in his chest resonating throughout him, he knew he wasn't going to make it to the desert in time.

Which was why he gladly accepted the staff's call, allowing it's magic to encircle him, teleporting him directly to MK's location.

He had only just registered MK's presence in his chest, safe but drained, as well as the small figure in front of him-

There was a brighter, bluer flash.

Something grabbed hold of him, and cold ripped through Monkey Mech's sensors faster than he could process.

Alarm notifications flared in his vision as connection to his left arm was severed.

He could hear MK's voice, faintly, but he couldn't make out what he was saying over the ringing- and the whispers.

“M....K....” His voice was staticky, barely understandable, as he struggled to move, to get up, to protect.

Something cracked.

Darkness.

MK slipped out of Wukong's grip and slammed onto the deck of Sandy's air-ship, skidding slightly before coming to a complete stop. He groaned- it felt like every muscle, every bone in his body was aching.

Slowly, he started pushing himself up, glancing over at where his mentor was starting to do the same.

His breath caught.

“The- she-” He choked, coughing, Monkey King turning and looking at him with obvious concern. “Monkey Mech- we have to, we have to help-”

He pulled himself to his feet, only to freeze at the sight of Wukong's expression.

That... that was not the expression of someone who believed there was still someone to help.

That there was still someone to save.

MK stumbled backwards, collapsing into Pigsy's arms.

Monkey Mech was gone.

It was almost like... dreaming.

Except Monkey Mech was not supposed to be able to dream, and, instead of a dream, if he had to compare it to anything, he'd say it was more like a nightmare.

He hadn't been expecting to come to awareness again at all, really.

And especially not like this.

It was a bit of an overly polite way of describing it, honestly. He wasn't entirely sure if he could call what this was 'awareness'.

It was still dark. He could sense things moving around him, sure, and he thought that maybe he was moving too, but he wasn't in control of it.

It was cold.

He felt like he was rotting from the inside out.

MK stared up, gaping, at the armored monster Macaque had created.

Those... those were Monkey Mech's parts.

A ringing flooded MK's ears as a bone-chilling anger crashed over him.

The Lady Bone Demon was gone.

MK guided the mech over to a nearby cliff, moving the hand up in front of the entrance to the cockpit, letting the door open, the other's silently stepping out onto the hand, which MK lowered to the ground, allowing the others to hop off before he jumped out of the pilot seat himself. Landing on the ground, in a crouched position, kicking up a fair amount of dust, MK slowly stood up and turned around, facing the mech behind him.

Since summoning him onto the field, Monkey Mech hadn't said a single word.

Not a single thing.

With MK no longer in the pilot seat, the mech simply stood there. Still.

Not a single sign of movement.

“Is... is he…” Mei trailed off, not wanting to voice what they were all thinking.

Monkey Mech was back, in body yes, but in spirit?

MK wasn't sure.

There was a flash of golden light out of the corner of his eye, and MK turned his head just in time to see Wukong change out of his bird form to land on the ground, Macaque stepping out of the shadows behind him. Wukong wasted no time in tearing off the armor he'd been wearing, tossing it off to the side as though it had personally offended him.

He was in the middle of making quick work of tearing off his outer shirt when he noticed the looks on all the others' faces.

“...Why do you all look so sad?” He asked, before seemingly finally noticing how still Monkey Mech was being. “...Oh. Hm. Weird.”

“Monkey King... is Monkey Mech-”

“He's... there, yes. Just not... awake, I guess? His energy is definitely there, but it's not at the forefront.” Wukong said, tilting his head to the side, golden eyes flashing. “Maybe if you give him a lil smack on the side?”

“Monkey King.”

“What, it works for laundry machines!” Wukong tried to defend himself from Mei's glare, raising his hands innocently. Her glare only hardened to pure steel.

“Monkey Mech is not a laundry machine, Mr.King. We are not going to sma-”

She was cut off as a loud clang resonated through the air. As one, the group turned to see Nezha, who was slowly pulling the flat end of his spear away from Monkey Mech, analyzing him.

There was a brief pause-

And then suddenly Monkey Mech was reeling back, stumbling, almost like a delayed reaction. One hand went up to the spot where he'd been hit, protecting it from a second attack.

“Ow.” Monkey Mech's voice hissed, filled with static, “What was that for- Oh. Hi guys. ...Did we win?”

“Holy shit.” Wukong muttered, the only words spoken as the others simply stared up at Monkey Mech in frozen shock. “I did not think that would work.”

It was a few hours after Nezha and Macaque had both left, Macaque saying he was going off to do some scheming, and Nezha simply saying that he need to return to the Celestial Realm, when Wukong brought it up.

“Y'know,” Wukong started, pausing mid-way through his fourth bowl of noodles that night, “I've been wondering this for a bit but. Why doesn't Monkey Mech just join us down here?”

“...What do you mean?” MK asked, from his position of sitting on Monkey Mech's shoulder. “He's right here.”

“Well, yeah, but like, he could be down here, is what I mean.”

“...I'm afraid I don't follow.” Tang said, “Once again, what do you mean by 'down here'?”

“Ugh, y'know!! Down here!! With us!! Eating!!”

“...I don't know if anyone told you, Monkey King, but I'm a robot.” Monkey Mech gently lifted a hand so that MK could jump onto it, carefully bringing him down so that he could be closer to the conversation taking place around the campfire. “I can't eat.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know you're a robot.” Wukong waved a hand dismissively. “My point is, you don't have to be a robot right now.”

Silence.

“...Monkey King.” MK said, slowly, and Wukong finally seemed to realize that maybe, just maybe, he was privy to some information that the others weren't, if the way he suddenly started to shrink under their collective stares was any indication. “Are you telling me. That there's been a way to make Monkey Mech human this whole time?”

“Uh…” Wukong shrunk down more, looking nervous as the others didn't take their eyes off of him for even one second. “...Kinda.”

“What do you mean, kinda?” Pigsy asked, “Either there is, or there isn't. Hurry it up and spit it out.”

“Okay, okay, fine so like, he would not necessarily be human, I guess?” Wukong scratched at the side of his face, seemingly thinking about it more intently. “It'd be more like... a hologram? Except he'd be able to interact with solid matter. He could form a new body outside of the mech, and just, transfer his energy into it. Of course- me or MK would have to help him make it the first time, and it doesn't really need to be a human form... but it's possible.”

A much longer silence. Wukong's tail started to swing back and forth nervously.

“Did, did you guys not kn-” He started, but was interrupted by Monkey Mech's voice.

“I could've been going inside the Noodle Shop this whole time?!?!”

“That's what you're the most concerned about?!”

The rest of the night ended up being entirely and completely dedicated to designing Monkey Mech's mortal form. Wukong had said something about how Monkey Mech “needed to feel like himself in it” in order for it to work- so MK had rushed inside of the van to grab his sketchbook and pencils, and had quickly gotten to work, creating multiple designs with Monkey Mech's input.

Realistically, it should've been a relatively short process.

That is, if Monkey Mech would just pick one design.

“...No, it's not right.” Monkey Mech said, for what had to be the 23rd time that night, and MK let out a groan. The others had all mostly accidentally dozed off, leaving only MK and Monkey Mech awake. (Or, at least, MK assumed so. Wukong was curled up on top of his cloud, but for all MK knew, the Monkey King could very well just be pretending to sleep. MK kind of wanted to pull a little test, just to check, but considering Wukong had probably had little sleep these past few days in general, he didn't want to risk accidentally waking him up if he was, in fact, asleep). MK shoved the paper he'd been working on to the side, grabbing another one, and waiting for Monkey Mech's next drawing instruction.

“Um... I, uh…” Monkey Mech trailed off into silence. MK turned to look at him, but his face was just as blank and unreadable as always. His body language, however, read as… nervous. Unconfident. MK stared at him for a minute, then back down at the papers covered in various designs all around him, and then back up at Monkey Mech.

“...You do know that it doesn't need to be perfect, right?” He asked, receiving no response. “Nobody's perfect, after all. It just needs to be you.”

Monkey Mech slowly gave a nod. After a longer moment of silence, he quietly gave a new request, and MK turned back around to focus on drawing.

By the time morning came, the sun rising over the horizon, Monkey Mech had made his choice.

“Alright.” MK said, clapping his hands together as the others sat on the nearby logs they had set up for the campfire the night before. “Let's get this show on the road!”

“Uh, kid, did you even sleep at all?” Pigsy asked. MK ignored him.

“Monkey King!” He said instead, “You uh, got any advice on how to do this?”

“Eh, just concentrate your magic in one spot while focusing on the visual in your mind.” Wukong shrugged. He raised an eyebrow upon noticing the deadpan stares he got in response for his simple answer. “...What? The kid's pretty instinctive, it'll work out. Besides, if it's not working, I'll step in, don't worry.”

He then proceeded to yawn and roll over, seemingly going back to sleep, which was, y'know not reassuring in the slightest.

MK turned to look up at Monkey Mech, trying not to let his anxiousness show.

“You ready for this big guy?”

Monkey Mech gave a simple thumbs up. MK suspected that he wasn't speaking so that the nervousness in his own voice wouldn't show.

“Right. Okay.” MK took a deep breath, muttering to himself. “You got this. You can do this. Simple. Easy. Just picture it in your head…”

MK closed his eyes, holding his hands out in front of him, doing his best to hold the mental image of the design he and Monkey Mech had chosen within his mind.

Red fur... golden eyes... hair pulled back, with just a tiny bit of it remaining loose to frame his face... that stupid jacket that Monkey Mech seemed to enjoy for some reason that MK didn't have the heart to refuse adding to the design…

A few minutes passed with seemingly nothing, and Monkey Mech was about to speak up to tell MK to maybe take a break from this whole thing, that he could wait until later, when-

A spark.

A flash.

A bright ball of light appeared in between MK's outstretched hands, flickering, before slowly growing and morphing. The others watched in raptured silence- even Wukong sitting up (proving that he had not, in fact, gone back to sleep), as they watched the light slowly morph into a more humanoid form.

Another bright flash, one that had everyone covering their eyes-

And then there was a body, standing on the ground, frozen still, eyes closed, almost as though they were asleep.

“Yes!! I did it!!” MK cheered, before pausing. After a moment, he turned his head to the side to look at Wukong. “Uh... Monkey King, what do we do next?”

“What do you mean?” Wukong asked.

“He means, uh.” Monkey Mech said, leaning down to get a closer look at the body meant for him. “How do we get me into the body?”

“Oh. That…” Wukong said, trailing off. Mei, sensing mischief, pinched his arm. “Ow, hey!”

“You better not have been about to say something along the lines of 'smacking him like a laundry machine' again.” She hissed, and Wukong leaned away from her.

“Please, of course I wasn't!” From the expressions of everyone around him, nobody actually believed that statement. Wukong coughed awkwardly. “Ahem. Uh, anyways it... should come naturally, really. Just, you can feel the energy inside you, right?”

“Yes…” Monkey Mech said, slowly.

“Right. So, just, mentally imagine that, condense it into one spot, and then... just imagine it leaving you and going into the body I guess?”

“You guess?” Pigsy crossed his arms, “What do you mean you guess?”

“Well I've never done this before!”

“What do you mean you've never- how do you know this will even wor-”

“Oh. Hey. It worked.”

Everyone turned to see that the light in the giant robot's eyes had faded, and-

The smaller, monkey demon form on the ground was now moving.

Monkey Mech had barely taken a step before he was stumbling, not used to his new size. MK quickly moved forwards to catch him. Monkey Mech's hands clung onto MK's jacket, shaking for a moment, his tail swinging as he looked up to meet MK's eyes.

“...Hi, MK.” He smiled at him. MK smiled back.

“Hi, Monkey Mech.”

That seemed to be all the permission the other's needed to tackle the two of them, sending them both tumbling to the ground, trapped under the rest of the group.

“Agh- hey!” MK struggled, trying to squirm his way out. “Not fair!! I wasn't ready for this one!! Let me go!”

“No can do, kid.” Pigsy said, “Y'see, Tang's done the numbers, and we're pretty sure you have not slept in the past three days, at least.”

“And, well, Mr. Monkey Mech has never slept at all…” Sandy said, “So…”

“Yeah. We're not letting either of you up until you both fall asleep.” Mei finished.

MK huffed, pouting, but not directly protesting the treatment. Monkey Mech, for his part, looked shocked-

And then he burst out into loud laughter, some tears running down his face, startling everyone.

“Uh, guys?” Tang said, “I think we broke the mech.”

Monkey Mech swung his legs back and forth. Getting used to being able to transfer himself into such a small form was... definitely a weird adjustment. He was grateful for it, most definitely he was, he finally got the chance to play arcade games with MK, Mei, and Red Son, as well as go in a car, and into the mall, and the movie theatre, as well as the Noodle Shop-

(Monkey Mech looked at the area around him with wide eyes, half supported by MK and Mei as they led him in. He still wasn't quite used to walking around in such a small body yet.

“Y'know…” Monkey Mech said, “...The inside of the Noodle Shop is much smaller than I thought it'd be.”

“I don't know if I should be taking that as an insult or a compliment.” Pigsy sighed, walking past them. “It better have been a compliment.”

“Oh- uh, trust me, it was!”

“You don't sound very confident in that statement.”

“C'mon- it was definitely a compliment- MK back me up here!”

“Sorry dude, you're on your own.”).

So yeah, overall, it'd been great.

Didn't mean that sitting on his own shoulder didn't feel really weird though.

Monkey Mech swung his legs back and forth again as he thought, staring out at the half-constructed buildings around him. He'd been leaving his real robot body here for now, but he'd probably have to move it soon. Construction was shockingly fast within this city, sooner or later people would start to move back into this area... he'd probably have to move himself to the outskirts then.

Now that he thought about it, that clearing that Wukong had shown him would probably work just fine…

Lost in his own thoughts, he almost missed the shadow portal forming directly beside him.

The keyword being almost.

Monkey Mech did a double take, whipping his head around just as Macaque stepped out to stand beside him, giving him a little wave.

“Yo, Monkey Mech!” He said, “Uh, congrats on the new form. Heh. Um, I just came around cause uh. I wanted to... say sorry for, uh, stealing and using your corpse. From one resurrected guy to another, that was, uncool of me.”

...Was that meant to be a pun? Monkey Mech had some vague memories involving Macaque and feeling like pure ice was tearing through his non-existent skin.

Hm. Now that Monkey Mech thought about it, pretty much all of his memories associated with the time Macaque had been using his parts had felt... wrong.

Hm.

Macaque seemed to be growing nervous at Monkey Mech's lack of a response, the anxiety in his expression slowly growing more obvious as Monkey Mech slowly stood up.

“...So, yeah, that was all I wanted to say, so, I'll just be going now-” Macaque went still as Monkey Mech vanished in a flash of golden light, returning himself to his robotic body. Before Macaque could recover from the shock, Monkey Mech raised one hand, carefully grabbing Macaque by his scarf. Macaque immediately struggled, trying to kick and scratch at Monkey Mech's fingers to no avail. “Woah- hey-”

Macaque let out a strangled noise as Monkey Mech unceremoniously tossed him into his cockpit, shutting the door behind him.

“Hey!” Macaque shouted, and, having landed in the pilot seat upside down, quickly readjusted himself to be sitting up. “What are you-”

“During your time using me, you felt a little... off.” Monkey Mech crossed his arms over his chest, preventing Macaque from being able to kick the door open. “So, I'm running a diagnostic on you.”

“What? You can't just- you know what, I don't have the time for this.” Macaque huffed, a shadow portal forming under his feet, the monkey demon dropping down into it-

Only to be spat out back into the cockpit.

“...Huh?” Macaque didn't even waste a single second before trying again. “I- what? What is this, how are you doing this?”

“A robot never reveals his secrets!” Nevermind that Monkey Mech was horrible at keeping secrets, or that-

“You have no idea how you did it either, do you.”

“Not a clue!”

A small pop-up appeared in Monkey Mech's vision.

Macaque was suddenly and abruptly tossed out of the cockpit.

Macaque swore, loudly, and Monkey Mech saved rolling his eyes until after he'd reformed his monkey body, and leapt forwards to snag Macaque out of the air, landing on the rooftop on a nearby almost-finished building. He set Macaque down on the solid ground, dusting off the shadow monkey's shoulders, ignoring the angry and indignant muttering that seemed to be comparing him to a dangerously faulty Easy Bake Oven.

...Not that Monkey Mech even knew what that was.

“Diagnostic's done!” He said instead, clapping his hands while smiling innocently. “And- hm.”

“Hm?”

“Well, you're functioning.”

“Yeah, obviously, I wouldn't be here if I wasn't.” Macaque rolled his eyes, crossing his arms and turning away from him.

“I do think you should probably go to a doctor, though.” Monkey Mech added, watching with thinly veiled concern as Macaque let out an irritated sigh.

“Oh yeah?” He asked, “And why's that?”

“...Well, it's not exactly normal for people to not have heartbeats, is it?”

Macaque made a sound that was almost akin to a kicked puppy, and suddenly Monkey Mech almost wished he hadn't said anything, as the other vanished into a shadow portal within the blink of an eye. Monkey Mech stood there, for a while, waiting to see if the other would come back, to learn what else the diagnostic had picked up.

...He didn't come back.

Monkey Mech sighed, and shelved the concern over the shadow monkey's only slightly healed broken ribs and damaged six ears for a later date.

“Monkey Mech!” MK's voice called, and Monkey Mech risked glancing up from his precariously stacked stack of delivery boxes in his arms to see MK standing on the top of a nearby building. “Is it cool if I use some of your parts for a bit?”

Monkey Mech shifted slightly to account for the stack changing weight.

“Uh, who is it today?” He asked.

“Jin and Yin!”

“Oh, sure! It's fine!”

MK gave him a thumbs up, and then summoned the staff, leaping to another building. They had discovered, a while ago, that while Monkey Mech was in his monkey demon form, any damage taken to his robot self would not hurt him in any way- so long as it was put back together properly before he returned to it.

That knowledge would have certainly been helpful in escaping a few situations if they had known it much earlier.

Monkey Mech returned to his goal of delivering the take-out boxes in his arms, and sure enough, a few minutes later, he could faintly feel the tug of magic suggesting that some of his robotic parts were being pulled to MK. Another couple of minutes later, there was a large crash in the distance, and Monkey Mech struggled not to fumble the last delivery box in his arms- only barely managing to keep it from slipping out of his grasp and tumbling to the pavement as the ground shook.

Geez. He couldn't believe anyone had been able to handle living with him around for a year if this is what it had been like whenever he had taken a step slightly too hard.

Final box delivered- Monkey Mech turned around to walk back to the Noodle Shop.

Upon return, it seemed like he had just missed MK, the faint hint of his energy vanishing around a corner, leaving Mei and Pigsy behind.

“Hey guys!” Monkey Mech gave them both a wave, catching their attention. “I'm done with deliveries, Pigsy.”

Pigsy let out a worn sigh.

“Thanks, Monkey Mech.” He said, “At least one kid is actually doing their job around here…”

Monkey Mech sat cross-legged on the stone floor, Delivery, Painter, and Porty beside him.

All four of them were focused solely on the Azure Lion sitting across from them.

MK had summoned them to Flower Fruit Mountain- or, well, he'd summoned Monkey Mech, literally teleporting him there (he'd been in the middle of cat-napping on a roof, now that he could, in fact, nap). The other three had simply been poofed into existence already at the scene.

They'd been instructed to “keep an eye” on Azure Lion. He was, essentially, a complete stranger that they were choosing to tentatively trust, after all.

Besides, it wasn't like Monkey Mech could go into the scroll in giant robot form, not to mention that going in while in his monkey demon form, which he was only just getting used to, would be a bad idea, and MK obviously knew that he would worry if he didn't have some kind of task.

...The clones were probably just there so that he had some familiar people with him.

That being said, none of them had said a single word for the past four hours, which was rather impressive restraint on the part of the hair-clones.

A restlessness started to form in Monkey Mech's chest, but he ignored it, figuring it was just coming from being stuck sitting around doing nothing but stare at a complete stranger for so long.

Seriously, couldn't the guy come up with some kind of polite conversation to talk about? Heck, Monkey Mech would even take talking about the weather at this point! The weather!!

The restlessness kicked up a notch.

And then suddenly it was a pang, an all too familiar one.

Monkey Mech gasped, doubling over, clutching at his chest. The hair-clones had a similar reaction-

They poofed out of existence at the next pang.

“Something- something's happening to MK.” Monkey Mech struggled to get out, unable to get rid of the sensation of pain and panic. “I- you gotta let me in there, I have to help him-”

“Sorry, but.” Azure slowly stood up, a new, menacing aura surrounding him. “I'm afraid I can't allow that.”

And then he snapped, and Monkey Mech could feel the magic encircling him- the parts of his body fading away-

He jolted back into awareness in his robot form, exactly where he had left it, sitting on the outskirts of town. He remained completely frozen for a second, processing, before;

“Oh, I knew we couldn't trust that motherf-”

Monkey Mech watched silently as Wukong began the slow process of collecting all his robotic parts from the places Azure had carelessly thrown them to. Now more than ever, he was glad that he could transfer himself into another form so easily.

It still didn't make seeing his real form torn up into multiple pieces any less... disturbing.

He tried his best to ignore it, instead looking over to where MK was trying to lift some knocked over trees back into place. Wukong had said that Flower Fruit Mountain was fairly sturdy, and had a habit to bounce back from, well, a lot. (He hadn't elaborated upon what that meant, but Monkey Mech had the feeling that Flower Fruit Mountain had seen catastrophe before). So, MK had taken it upon himself to make as much of the process easier for the mountain's magic as he could.

...The both of them had also been quite promptly kicked out of the efforts to rebuild Wukong's house after Wukong had accidentally broken a board in half, and MK had started to get a little too into painting the walls.

Monkey Mech, really, had been sent out to keep an eye on the both of them, to make sure that they didn't end up getting into some kind of mystic-monkey trouble.

(Technically, didn't he also count as a mystic monkey now? Did that mean he could also get into mystic monkey trouble? ...Monkey Mech wasn't quite sure about the logistics of it, or how one defined 'mystic monkey trouble' in the first place. It was probably better to not think about it).

As it was, everything seemed fine…

Monkey Mech let out a sigh, slouching a little as he watched Wukong move to grab the next piece, and MK reach for the next tree.

He wished he could be on the beach right now…

Monkey Mech stared at the water far below him in trepidation.

“C'mon Monkey Mech!” MK called out, waving his arm from said water. “Join us!!”

Monkey Mech continued to stare down at the water.

He was standing on his own shoulder again. MK had practically tackled him full force earlier that morning, telling him about a much needed beach day, to take a break from the efforts to repair Flower Fruit Mountain, to just enjoy some sun, and had practically outright demanded that Monkey Mech bring his robot form with him, not just his monkey-self.

Monkey Mech had been, understandably, confused at the time.

He hadn't expected that MK would have used his robot body as a makeshift giant diving board plus water slide.

(Or, well, more so just slide, with the water only being at the end. They didn't have a hose long enough to be able to reach Monkey Mech's shoulder- so they couldn't run water down the arm that was currently extended slightly at an angle).

There was a green flash, and suddenly Mei was standing beside him, her head tilted to the side.

“What's wrong?” She asked, and Monkey Mech tried his best for an easy-going smile.

Considering how he had quickly discovered that faking expressions was a lot harder than he thought it would be, he was pretty sure he did not succeed.

“It's nothing!” He said, “I'm fine.”

“...Uh-huh, sure.” Mei was clearly unimpressed. “You've been standing up here for the past 15 minutes. Are you going to jump in or not?”

“Well, uh-” Monkey Mech stuttered for a second, before shrinking down into himself, avoiding eye contact as he said, quietly. “I don't know how to swim.”

“What do you mean you don't-”

“I was a giant robot, remember!! Of course I don't know how to swim.” Monkey Mech's tail swished back and forth with anxiety. “What if I just sink?”

“Hm... I guess that's a valid point.” Mei mumbled, before reaching out and grabbing hold of Monkey Mech's arm. “Let's get you down from here, then.”

Before Monkey Mech even had the chance to blink, Mei had scooped him up on one shoulder, and rushed him back down to the beach, her dragon speed ensuring that they barely even touched the water.

Monkey Mech stumbled slightly when she put him down on the sand, but very quickly regained his balance.

“Mei? Monkey Mech?” MK asked, walking out of the water to join them. “What's up?”

“Mecha-dude over here doesn't know how to swim.” Mei said, pointing her thumb at Monkey Mech as she did so. Monkey Mech let out an irritated huff, mumbling “it's Monkey Mech, you've known this for a while now-” under his breath, and being rather obviously ignored.

“Oh! Well, not to worry!!” MK wrapped his arm around Monkey Mech's shoulders. “I can teach you!”

“...Uh-huh.” Monkey Mech said, slowly. “I have so much confidence in being taught how to swim by the person wearing floaties.”

“We should've never let Red Son teach you what sarcasm was.” MK deadpanned, before swapping back to his easy-going smile effortlessly. “And I can swim!! I just sink easily, is all.”

That statement was not as reassuring as MK clearly thought it was, but Monkey Mech didn't even have the chance to voice that thought, as he was grabbed by both arms and dragged into the ocean.

“Hey, Monkey Mech?”

...Monkey Mech did not like the look on MK's face.

“...What is it?” He asked, hoping his nervousness didn't show- but it must've, as the teasing smirk on MK's face grew slightly wider.

“So... I realized I never actually got the chance to ask you this before, in between getting you adjusted to your new body and, like, everything that happened afterwards…”

Oh, Monkey Mech did not like where this was going, slowly starting to stand up, but was prevented from doing so as MK put his hands on his shoulders and shoved him back down into his seat.

“And, well, you can actually show expressions now, so y'know, I was wondering…” MK continued, “...Why?”

Well... Monkey Mech could pretend to play dumb for a few moments longer, couldn't he?

“Why what?” He asked, already knowing there was an absurdly flustered expression on his face, one that drew the attention of the others, as well as made the teasing smirk on MK's face somehow more menacing.

“Why did you stand around for three days?” MK asked, and Monkey Mech opened his mouth- “No lying this time, young man.”

Monkey Mech let his mouth close.

Slowly, he looked away, avoiding eye contact.

“C'monnnnn.” MK poked him in the arm repeatedly, “I'm not gonna leave you alone until you give me an answer.”

Yeah. Monkey Mech had picked up on it.

He let out a defeated sigh.

“Okay, fine, you got me.” He said, “It was because of p.”

“...P?”

“Peace out.” Monkey Mech quickly made a peace sign, and then let himself dissolve in a flash of light, returning to his robot body.

Even though he was now on the other side of town, he could still hear MK's scream of frustration.

#Monkie Kid #lego monkie kid #fanfic #my writing #Monkey Mech Mayhem AU

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lilibrownlabonita · 2 years

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Hello!

Can i request for a namor x fem avenger reader where she can control elements and after the events of the endgame she came to live near the beach for peace and quiet

A little child from namors kingdome got curious and stole the equipment to breath air to greet her

She saw him and she played with him and they became friends

Namor notices that some equipement is missing so him,attuma and namora come and see amd the child is without the equipment because y/n is keeping him safe with her powers

And namor just becomes obsessed

And the people of takatoa

And smut ensures?

sorry for taking so long to write, my week was complicated and I had no motivation to write, I hope you like it, I tried to make good content 💕.

*=link +18

When your powers emerged, you were sent to an institution, where there were more people with you, mutants, no matter how many tears you shed, your parents left you there and never came back. It was thanks to Natasha Romanoff, that you found your place, she found you during a mission, you had saved her life by burning a man who was after her, Natasha took you in, saw potential in you, so she took you to be trained, so that one day you would be an avenger. As an avenger, your duty was to protect the earth and the people, that was your purpose, to be a hero and save lives, that was why you fought against Thanos, and when it was all over, many of your friends died.

In search of peace and tranquility, you left for the beach, where the water was abundant and the winds were aggressive at night, far away from all the pain caused by Thanos, the water washed your body of bad memories and brought you shells as gifts. After a few months living in this small house, your routine began to take shape, first the day started with a good breakfast, then you cleaned the house and went to the beach, swam and sometimes cleaned up the garbage left by some people, in the afternoon you were free to read or do anything artistic you wanted, and at night you ate a home cooked meal and slept. On rainy days your powers became a little too strong, the water hitting hard against the rocks sharpened your senses, and all you wanted was to get outside and be free to use your powers.

That's how you met him, on a stormy night, a blue boy, standing near the edge of the sea, at first you thought he might have been lost or drowned, but when he started walking towards you, saying some things in an unknown language, you realized that he was not from the surface, this boy was from the water.

Even without fully understanding what he was saying, you managed to communicate, showed the boy your house and dried his wet skin, the moment you handed him a mug of hot chocolate, you realized that he couldn't drink because he needed the device on his face to breathe. Fearful, you used your power to create a circumference of water around the boy's neck, allowing him not to need to wear the braces covering his mouth and to be able to drink the hot chocolate, he was almost the sponge bob in Sandy's house.

That wasn't the last time you saw the boy, every other day he would come back at night to play in the water, drink hot chocolate, or watch movies on TV. Then suddenly the child disappeared, a week went by and he didn't come, you waited every night for him at the water's edge, but there was no sign of the boy.

Until one dawn, noises of footsteps were coming from outside the house, running outside you saw the blue boy, hugged him and smiled when he returned the hug. The sun was setting, but still you two played in the sand, running around, and throwing water at each other.

Unbeknownst to you, from afar, three figures were watching you, watching you play with the boy, and using your powers so that he could be without the equipment. During the boy's disappearance, K'uk'ulkan, was interrogating him, asking about the missing equipment, and what the boy had used the equipment for, so when the child told him about you and how the two of them played at night in the water, Namora and Attuma along with K'uk'ulkan went to the surface and watched their powers flow from you to playing with the boy.

Slowly, the three approached, and when you noticed their presence, you quickly moved into attack position, afraid that they would hurt you or the kid.

"Who are you?"

"I am K'uk'ulkan, King of Talokan, my enemies call me Namor, but I don't think it is suitable for you."

"What do you mean?."

"I know you are not an enemy, you present no risk, I have observed you for a few days, I am curious about your powers, and so are my people."

Since that day K'uk'ulkan and you began to meet, he told about how he found out the boy was going to the surface, the child's parents noticed him missing at night, and curiously at the same time, that equipment also disappeared.

In every encounter, more and more, the King of Talokan fell in love with you, he felt a fascination for your power, and watched whenever possible you use your power to amuse the boy. The child's parents wanted to know who was the person who caught their child's attention, so K'uk'ulkan, Namora and Attuma, took the little family to meet you, they were curious about the person who could control the four elements.

Soon the news spread through Talokan, most saw you as a possible ally, but others like Attuma and Namora, believed you could be the Queen at K'uk'ulkan's side.

Of course the King knew about this gossip, the years were passing and he still didn't have a Queen at his side, but with you, he saw a possibility, who would be better than a powerful woman like you? He knew that he was destined to be with the woman who captivated one of his small children, and who instead of attacking, took the boy into her home and cared for him as if he were her son too, K'uk'ulkan knew that you were his Queen.

The people of Talokan accepted the King's choice, not because they were afraid of him, but because they knew you would be a good Queen for them, and even the most distrustful like Namora, began to love the future Queen, you would give security and protect them as you did the people on the surface, that was your purpose now, it was your destiny to be Queen of Talokan.

"Marry me, be my Queen, y/n, with your strength and mine, one day we can burn the world, you have enchanted me since the first time I saw you, like a mermaid."

K'uk'ulkan believed he would have the strength to control himself until the wedding, but he was wrong, lust was stronger, the moment you agreed to marry, he pressed his lips to yours, his strong calloused hands gripped your body. In the blink of an eye, his big hand was on your pussy, touching your clit until you came.

"My love, cum for me, I want you to wet my hand before I put my cock in you."

When he was satisfied, he kissed your mouth, it was a hot and wet kiss, he laid you on the bed with your back to him, in your ear he whispered in a groggy, panting voice.

"Forgive me for being so impatient, I can't control myself anymore, the only thing I can think about is your body and how I want to fuck you."

The room was being filled with the smell of sex, as he teased your pussy, rubbing his cock against you, his hands grabbed your breasts and squeezed them hard enough to leave marks.

"Beg."

"Please."

*Quickly K'uk'ulkan lifted one of your legs, positioned his cock in your pussy and thrust deeply, his breathing was ragged as his thrusts got faster and faster.

"Allow me to cum inside you, love, a good husband should always cum inside his wife, to give her children, say you want it, I will give every drop to your pussy."

The words spoken in your ear made your pussy tighten around his cock, K'uk'ulkan wanted to get you pregnant, the idea of being a mother never crossed your mind, but now, with his cock so deep, reaching that place that made you see stars, yes, you wanted to be a mother.

"Please, K'uk'ulkan, my husband, cum in me."

#wakanda forever #namor x reader #tenoch huerta #namor #marvel #tenoch #kukulkan #namor x you #namor x y/n #aqua papi #namor the sub mariner #talokan #namor smut #kukulcan

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munsonfamilyband · 2 years

Text

I’m having random thoughts again so here are some thoughts on the Fruity Four

Despite her squeamishness after the Russians Ordeal, Robin is an avid fan of unsolved mysteries/true crime. This includes but is not limited to: cryptids, serial killers, unsolved murders, haunted houses. Her and Nancy get close because Nancy loves a good mystery, and they start a book club where it’s just them and they only read Agatha Christie.

People assume that when the Fruity Four are together Robin and Eddie are the chaotic ones, and that is sometimes true but only on days where Steve has a headache or is in some other pain. If Steve is feeling okay then it’s either he and Eddie being chaos children or all three of them and Nancy acts like a disappointed parent while also encouraging Robin to make the boys do crazier things.

Eddie fully corrupts Nancy, even if she doesn’t dress like it. He gets her into Metal and on Stobin Sleepover nights they go out and commit crimes and usually get picked up by Hopper who lets them off with a warning. On the rare occasions that he doesn’t find them, they end up having to call Joyce to come get them because they know that Steve and Robin have been drinking since 2 in the afternoon and physically cannot drive.

Eddie has ADHD and so weighted blankets are his favorite thing, but even better than a blanket is Steve. Steve is touch starved and loves feeling needed. This combines into them laying on the couch during movie nights with Steve fully on top of Eddie.

When the four of them, or six if they can get Jonathan and Argyle to join, all hang out they always end up in a big cuddle pile. The only sleeping position that never changes is Robin spooned up behind Steve. In the future, when she learns that it’s called Jetpacking when a smaller person is the big spoon she gets way too excited about it.

Robin nearly collapses the first time Nancy comes to one of Eddie’s shows actually dressed for the event. She had lost a bet with Steve and she had to let Eddie give her a full make over. Think Sandy’s pants from the end of Grease with one of Eddie’s old shirts cut to all hell and a denim jacket.

Steve and Robin, at their sleepovers, get unbelievably drunk. Depending on the week they had it varies but the go to is wine - Steve hadn’t had wine before Robin that he liked and it makes him giggly, he’d had liquor for a long time but he associates it with his parties from school. If they had a really shitty week they break out tequila and Robin makes margaritas. They each pick a movie that they think will make the other person laugh (half the time Robin picks a stoner comedy and it never fails). By the time they’ve finished the movies they’re very drunk and then the oversharing begins. Steve tells her all about his sex life, Robin tells him all about hers, they share fantasies and plan out how to make them happen together.

Robin gave Steve a music education after Starcourt and Eddie hates it because her education included more pop music, he will credit her for her knowledge of so many female artists though. Before Robin Steve listened to Pat Benetar, Springsteen, maybe some Bon Jovi. After Robin he listened to them too, but he mixed in Blondie, Heart, ABBA, and some Joan Jett. Eddie complains about it, but he still learns how to play Steve’s favorites on guitar and he manages to get the guys to do a metal cover of some of them.

Dustin was so excited when he found out about them dating, most of the kids were (except for Mike because he thinks he’s been cursed to have Steve date people in his life). Dustin is especially excited because he likes to take credit for getting them together, which Robin very vocally disagrees with because she put in a lot of work. The children are soon very not happy about it because they’re disgustingly in love and they have learned too much about their sex life (Robin always laughs when they say this and offers to clarify things because they really know nothing).

When everyone eventually leaves Hawkins the four of them get an apartment together wherever they go. Probably Boston so Nancy can go to Emerson, Robin gets into another Boston college, Steve starts off working at a coffee shop but eventually gets a job at a daycare, and Eddie works at a game store while working on making a name for the band. The job at the daycare is what leads Steve to go back to school, after one of the other teachers comments on how good he is and asks if he had ever considered being a teacher. He starts at a community college and then gets into a full time college after that to get his teaching certificate.

When living together they have strict weekend schedules. Saturdays are bar hopping, usually among the gay bars. Fridays are movie nights where they cuddle up on the couch and get take out and usually get drunk and/or high and just enjoy being together

Eddie and Nancy complain about how they can’t keep any parts of their relationships secret because Robin and Steve have no secrets from each other. (For example, Steve found out that Eddie got a Prince Albert piercing before he could even show him because Robin found out and told him, Nancy tried to surprise Robin with some lingerie and a fancy date night but Steve found out and spoiled it)((secretly they love sharing the SteveRobin megabeing but sometimes it can be annoying having partners that share a brain)

#stranger things #steve harrington #steddie #eddie munson #platonic stobin #ronance #fruity four #posting drafts at 2am ayo #obsessed with criminal duo eddie and nancy while robin and steve day drink like the real housewives

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envihellbender · 2 months

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Which Succession character would you take to a fancy dinner to impress everyone

For the charm offence:

Shiv’s main skill is her ability to persuade and charm when it comes to those outside of the family. Pierce considered selling to Logan instantly if they made Shiv the CEO, she is referred to as “the nice one” on SNL, and she got Gil Eavis to meet with her dad. This is why she was so successful in politics, and could’ve continued to be if she wasn’t manipulated into leaving. As the girl she was always forced into the position of charming her dad to get his attention as she was instantly shut out from the business. This was clearly a defence mechanism because she felt abandoned by her mother who said she chose her dad. This brings us to the fact that Shiv feels threatened by other matriarchal figures (Marcia, for example) and tries to replace them. She often considers them a threat, especially when it comes to her relationship with her dad. All of those shows she doesn’t go for brutal, up front fights like Connor, Kendall, or Logan. She is subtle and tries to butter people up first, she knows when she needs to be charming.

She can lead a whole social event and knows exactly when to be flattering, when to pull out the banter, and when to bring up work. She knows what people want and need, she knows what people want to hear (this is shown when it comes to the Anniversary where Shiv is the only one who gives Logan what he wants as a present.) So long as no one offered her a stake in a company to betray me I think she’d be a good choice.

For the Business opportunities:

Stewy knows all the right people and he is somewhat loyal so long as he knows he is getting a hefty paycheck. He is very good at reading people and situations, for example during the vote of no confidence he knew when to back out and cut his losses. That being said, once he agrees to work with someone, if the money and security looks good, he is somewhat loyal. For example, he works for Sandy and Sandi from the beginning, and it’s shown in season three that not even money will sway him away from them, and he is still loyal to Sandi even after Sandy’s brain is going.

If it is purely a social event:

I admit I’m a little bit biased with this one because Roman is my favourite but I do have a genuine reason for this one. So when Roman is around his family he becomes the younger, annoying brat type. He becomes the archetype in abusive families known as the joker and sets himself up to be the scapegoat. He desperately wants to impress his dad, and later Kendall. This all shows he is extremely unimpressive. However, if we assume that this isn’t a Waystar or Roy event I actually think he’d be a decent choice.

In season one when collecting people to support a vote of no confidence against Logan Roy, Roman immediately says he will take Lawrence Yee. His reasoning is they know each other from a party they went to and get along really well. When we get to the restaurant later with Roman, Lawrence, and Lawrence’s husband Roman does actually come across as extremely charming. He’s even a little flirtatious (more so in the script) and manages to persuade them based essentially just on having the gift of the gab. It’s one of those circumstances where we see that when Roman is in a social situation without any pressure from the outside he actually can do quite well.

Another little detail I always quite like is that he is the only one who defends and is kind to Kerry after Logan’s death. Roman and Shiv I think both feel to me like if they had a different upbringing they’d be alright people.

#envi writes #succession #shiv roy #Roman roy #stewy hosseini

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hockstetters-overbite · 12 days

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We need to talk about gun rights

This usually isn't the type of content I like to post and this has been said time and time again but I feel like I have to bring something to the table because of recent events in my life

Of course i'll put trigger warnings for those who don't wish to view this type of content from me

TW: Mention of school shooter threats

Hello, as you all know my name is Alec, I'm 17, Jewish, and I'm a Junior in Highschool. I have a little sister who's only three years younger than me and who is in MIDDLE SCHOOL.

Last night she had to tell me that her school had gotten a shooting threat, Of course I immediately contacted our mother to suggest that we both stay home today because I could not in my right mind have my sister dropped off at school when the notion of a threat looms right over her in an environment she should be safe in. I didn't feel safe enough to go to school today either.

I've been in a lockdown before where the threat was somebody with a weapon of an unspecified type and it was one of the most horrific things I've ever had to experience in my entire life and I'd wish that type of fear and panic to nobody on this Earth. Not even my worst enemy.

Nothing is worse than having to sit in a classroom and fear for your life and your friend's lives because of somebody else. A substitute didn't have a lock to lock the door and couldn't find the bolo stick to put into the floor by the door.

After we were allowed out I had asked him if everything went okay and that's when he had told me that. He had stood in front of the door and was completely ready to lose his life for the kids he was in charge of.

I've had to teach my best friend where every available exit in the school was his freshman year because in the event that something does occur I want him to have a chance of getting out.

I have lost experiences such as homecoming and valuable time in school because I was too afraid to show up because of these threats.

Adults and Students, especially young ones, alike shouldn't have to worry about getting killed in an environment where they're supposed to be safe and learn in! Everyone should have a right to feel and be safe in their schools. One day I hope laws will come down harder on gun laws so kids don't have to memorize exits in their schools, to always keep it in the back of their heads that they might not go home that day and especially so no parent has to lose their child to something so horrific.

If you would like to help prevent gun violence I'd recommend donating to Sandy Hook Promise, i'll leave a link below. Thank you all for listening.

#protect women #protect children #protect men #protect people #sandy hook #sandy hook promise #sandy hook shooting #stop gun violence #gun rights #gun regulation #gun violence #gun control #school shooters #school sh00ting

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anniebear-92 · 2 years

Text

Paw Prints

First, I would like to apologize for the delay between the last chapter and this one. I had a lot going on in my life recently and have not had the ability to get this posted. I had it mostly written but again life happened to push it back. I have decided that I will be doing Five total parts to this so if you'd like to be added to the tag list let me know. Thank you again to everyone who has shown me love on these posts. They mean the world to me!

Previous Chapters: Part One Part Two

Part Three: Returning home after a stressful day at school you find a complete stranger on your couch. Talk about icing on the cake! Maybe we'll finally get some answers around here!

Warnings: Slight reference to a NSFW object and an act if you squint. Otherwise SFW

To say it had been a day would be an understatement.

You had gone through a multitude of tests, had your lovely piece of crap break down on you only to come home and find an intruder on your couch! A, handsome, muscular… semi naked one that had fluffy ears nestled in his sandy blonde hair and a tail that flicked behind him in faux anger. Reminding you immediately of a certain feline that seemed to be MIA at the current moment.

"Who the hell are you?"

His head tilted slightly as the blanket loosely hung around his hips began to slide, revealing more and more ever so slowly than you needed to see. A look of pure confusion crossed his features as you snatched your bag back up and held it out in front of you when the blanket finally slipped in full as a makeshift barrier to avoid seeing way more of the stranger than necessary.

"What do you mean who am I? I'm Bakugo you idiot!"

Blinking you quickly scanned the area for any hide or hair of the little ball of terror that was normally greeting you at this moment when you returned. Take a few deep calming breaths your gaze returned to his with a skeptical expression of your own.

"You're my cat? Or rather you're a cat?"

His thick arms crossed over a bare chest, your eyes struggled to maintain contact with his own striking pair that narrowed at the implication he was a liar.

"Of course I'm a cat! I'm not your or anyone's pet! You just happen to feed me and let me sleep here!" He threw his arms around during his little outburst while you attempted to keep the bag in your view at all times for modesty.

"Alright! Alright! Can you please just at least put the blanket back around you for now?"

Finally breaking into his annoyed rambling he paused after a brief moment and with a quick roll of his eyes snatched the blanket to wrap around his waist. You slowly lowered the bag with a grumbled thank you and dropped it beside you, completely uninterested in it after the day's events.

You began moving forward towards the large cat eared man, eyes searching him for any indication of his intent to harm you. Though his face set in a scowl was a bit off putting you did not get the sense of any immediate danger.

You slowly sank into the arm chair beside the couch, your hand running over your features in pure exhaustion.

"Are you ready yet? You fucking stink."

Peeking through your fingers you found the tall man looming above you, dropping your hand with a gasp in surprise he huffed at your reaction.

"This is routine by now why are you freaking out? You come home smelling like shitty dog and I make you smell tolerable!" He shifted his stance to lean forward, his nose twitching as his right ear flicked in pure annoyance. The tip of his tail peeked out from under the blanket, curling and uncurling to show he wasn't as annoyed as he let on.

"I don't understand the dog reference? I haven't seen or pet any dogs today… But that's beside the point! Where the hell is my cat? Seriously!"

Crossing your arms you glowered up at the stranger who let his head fall back with a groan. After a moment he leaned down, both of his large hands gripping the arm chair on either side of you as he thrust his face into yours. His already raspy voice lowering to send shivers down your spine as he emphasized.

"I. Am. Your. Cat."

Your breath made itself as scarce as your missing feline, eyes frantically searching for any hint of deceit from the man a little to close for comfort. You squeaked in response as he audibly sniffed, the skin wrinkling around his nose in disgust until he stood to full height once again before he turned and began marching towards the kitchen, grumbling all the while.

"Fucking hell, coming in here smelling like dog, yelling at me and treating me like you don't know me."

Now that "Bakugo" was out of your personal space, you took a deep inhale to refill your screaming lungs. You peeked over the backrest of the chair, watching as the blonde haired man began digging into the cupboards, throwing out onto the ground objects with a clang that he deemed not worthy of his interest.

What for the love of sweets is going on??

You quickly stood from your seat now taking the opportunity to actually search for your missing cat and prove that the man currently rummaging through your kitchen was actually some crazy cosplayer or something in order to report to the authorities. Disappearing from the living space you began searching high and low, in his normal hiding spots and ones you had yet to find him in the off chance he had taken to new habits while you were gone. Today was one for weird occurences so why not?

Failing in your search thus far you were interrupted by a clearing of the throat, turning while on your hands and knees to peer under the bed. He cocked a brow as he stood with arms crossed and a bewildered expression.

"The hell you doin'?"

Letting out an embarrassed chuckle you stood and brushed off your legs as you avoided gazing back at your handsome intruder.

"Looking for something…" He clicked his tongue while leaning against the doorframe.

"Your cat?"

Giving him a sheepish look he rolled his eyes before exiting the doorway and returning back down the hall for the banging to resume in the kitchen.

Chewing your lip you began digging into the closet for now, behind a few objects here and there you found the item of your search. A box you had stuffed into the back at the beginning of your vacation a few weeks prior. Inside were some old clothes from the times your ex would stay over that you had yet to make plans for returning just yet. Though he was nothing near the size of the blonde man claiming to be your pet, your search through the garments brought a pair of silk basketball shorts with drawstring should be a better fit for now than your couch throw blanket.

For good measure you made a stop at the dresser to pull out the largest shirt you owned, which had made a good sleep shirt for many years. At least he would be properly covered when you inevitably called the authorities to pick up the cat accessory wearing man and could return your blanket where it belonged… after a good wash.

You leaned around the corner to peek at what your "house guest" was doing still in the kitchen to find him chopping away at some vegetables you had just purchased the previous evening, a steaming pan sat on the stove with some ingredients already added inside. The smell that hit your nose almost drug an involuntary noise from you at the wonderful aroma. You were mesmerized for a few moments as you watched him move, the expanse and contract of the muscles in his shoulders and back with the chopping movements of the knife in his hand. He really was attractive… for an intruder.

Gathering your nerves you padded into the kitchen while avoiding the land mines of objects he had tossed onto the floor without care. You cleared your throat to catch his attention after a few moments of silence. To your surprise he didn't speak or acknowledge your presence in any shape or form. Trying once again, he finally gazed at you out of the corner of his eye while dumping his freshly chopped haul into the pan of sizzling sauce.

"You got a hairball or something?"

Blinking for a moment you shook your head at the audacity. "No uh.. Here. I brought you something to wear other than… That." Offering the clothing you gestured to the blanket that still hung low on his hips, his eyes alternating between your own and the garments that hung from your fingers.

"No thanks." He turned his attention back towards the hot stove leaving you sputtering in disbelief.

"Wasn't a question sir! I need you to put this on, you're not wearing any clothes and I will need my blanket back eventually. You can keep them, I don't need them anymore."

His long fingers turned the burner down to a simmer before turning and shooting a glare. "What do I need those for?"

Letting out a breath in annoyance you lifted the clothes while gesturing to your own. "To cover up? Modesty? Pick one I don't care at this point. You're in my house claiming to be my cat and you're naked! Either put on the clothes to be dressed when the police arrive or they'll have to just take you to jail like that!"

He cocked a brow, adjusting his stance to something a bit more relaxed.

"You still don't believe me do you?" Shaking your head and then your hand holding the clothes he finally groaned in annoyance. "Fine!" Snatching the clothes from your hand he dropped them on the counter beside you and began working at the knot holding the blanket around his slender waist. You let out a yelp that had him freezing to look at you, failing your hands you began yelling. "Go change in the bathroom! Or my room! Not here!"

He huffed as the ears on his head flattened, "You have to be so fucking picky? Whatever makes you happy!" Grabbing the clothes from the counter he began stomping towards the hallway leading to the restroom, grumbling all the while. You could barely catch his words but it sounded something like "Been naked here this entire time… now its a problem."

While your guest changed in the other room, you began snooping through what he had been working on before you interrupted. From the visual and aroma alone, your mouth watered in anticipation as you stirred the sauce in the pan. With a quick glance to make sure he was not stomping back out yet, you grabbed a spoon and took a small sample to shove in your mouth.

A groan escaped around the spoon at the flavors that exploded on your tongue. Okay, for a crazy guy who broke into your apartment… he knew how to cook.

"Does it meet your expectations, your majesty?"

The spoon slipped from your fingers and hit the ground with a clang as you rounded to find the culprit behind you. Your sleep shirt fit him perfectly even with a slight strain around the biceps and across the chest. How could this man make those silk shorts look ten times better than your ex ever did??

He snapped you out of your thoughts by shaking the blanket in your field of vision, your hands reaching out and taking it. You mumbled a thank you before skedaddling past him and throwing it in the washer while he returned to his work in the kitchen. Upon returning you found him spoon in hand, using it to point towards your dining table for emphasis.

"I'm making Mapo Tofu, sit your ass at the table and I'll explain when this is done."

With the promise of finally figuring out what the hell was going on you sat as you were told and watched him like a hawk. Telling yourself you were making sure he wasn't going to poison or drug you, the fact that he was insanely attractive moving around the kitchen like he owned the place had absolutely no affect on you…

He placed a steaming plate in front of you and handed you chop sticks before taking a seat himself on the other side of the table. You gave a brief thanks while inspecting the food you could only describe as a culinary work of art, looking worlds better than anything you have ever produced from this kitchen. "Bakugo" on the other side of the table began eating before you even got your first bite in. He used his fingers and raised the bowl to his mouth, ignoring the spare set of chopsticks he had brought out. Picking up your own pair, you gathered the nerve to finally take a bite. Now that everything was all completed you could taste the love and care he put into putting this meal together, maybe he was a chef when he wasn't breaking into people's homes?

A few bites in you stole glances at him while he chewed his own, his gaze locked on you as you waited patiently for him to hold up his promise of giving you the full details. Taking one final bite, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand before those striking eyes locked back with yours. You tossed a napkin to him, his body leaning away as if the item would bite him. A deep sigh left you as you pointed to it and then his arm, he rolled his eyes before wiping down his arm and tossing the cloth behind him. You grit your teeth when he spoke.

"Alright what do you want to know?"

You finished your current mouthful before setting down your utensils and interlaced your fingers. "I want to know who you really are, and why you're in my home. You say you're my cat but that's impossible. So.. Who are you and where is my cat?"

He tapped the table with the tip of his finger as his ears twitched, his tail flipping behind him revealing his annoyance beyond his stoic expression. Taking a deep breath he pointed the finger that had been tapping at you as he spoke.

"Listen up you, because I'm going to tell you this once. You're the first human I've revealed myself to so you better listen good! I AM Bakugo. I am a hybrid and have the ability to transform into a cat at will. I was on my own since birth after being separated from my mother. As a kitten I had been picked up from the streets and lived with some extras for a long while until they kicked me out a couple years ago, all because they had a new baby that was clearly more important and god forbid they take care of the pet they've had for years. Shocker."

He leaned back, his eyes trailing away from you as he crossed his arms. His sharp jaw set as he continued, "After I was kicked out I lived on the streets for some time. I was fine on my own and made some friends with some locals… eventually the elements got the better of me and I got sick. Really sick, more so than I ever have been in my life. I couldn't change back, I was stuck in my cat form for the longest time. I attempted so many times to get help, but humans are not always the kindest to strays."

He spit the final words while returning his gaze to yours, his eyes visibly softening as he continued.

"Then you found me and it all… changed."

Listening to his tale you could hear the pain in his voice when he spoke of the family that had abandoned him.

Who would abandon their pet over a child? He could shift between human and a cat?

"So you're really Bakugo?" He nodded, ear twitching as he took another bite of his tofu.

"Originally they called me Katsuki. So I guess I could go by either." You nodded, "So your full name would be Katsuki Bakugo." He shrugged in response, opting to eat his food instead of continuing the conversation.

"So if you really are my cat, why did you chose now to turn back and reveal yourself to me if you never have before?"

He chewed thoughtfully for a few minutes before he set his bowl down once again. "To be honest I didn't have a choice. I had recovered enough finally that my body had apparently returned to the state I could choose my forms again. I woke up just moments before you opened the door and didn't have the time to change back. I only realized my human form when you screamed your head off about stranger danger or some shit."

You snorted as you took your final bite, noticing for the first time the orange and black collar you had gotten him some time ago sitting snuggly around his neck. How had you not noticed that before? "Isn't that tight?" You questioned pointing at your own neck as he eyed you. "A bit, I loosened it earlier."

This guy had to be nuts… right? He cant really be a cat… shifter? Hybrid is that what he called himself? Deciding on a test you crossed your arms while leaning back into your chair. "So if you're really my cat… tell me something that only my cat would know."

He gave the most "Are you serious?" Look as you cocked a brow, clearly proving you were exactly that. He interlocked his fingers and leaned forward with a smirk on his lips.

"You sing, horribly, mind you in the shower." Your jaw dropped, eyebrows lowering to find the audacity this man had. You had perfect pitch!

"You tend to eat sweets in bed, especially a pint of ice cream while watching your favorite show and telling yourself that you'll go for a jog in the morning to work it off… that never happens. You procrastinate your school work until the last minute, dance in the mirror wearing only your underwear when you think no one is looking and last week you dropped a shirt from your laundry basket then picked it up with your toes because you were too lazy to bend over." He finished while sitting back and looking quite smug with himself. You however were unimpressed. "That just sounds like a lot people living alone. Nothing too specific towards me that only my cat would know."

His smirk dropped into a scowl as he searched your face, clearly trying to come up with something only he would know. A slow devious smile crossed his face as he lowered his hands to the table. "Fine, you want to play that game? You have a mole on your left butt cheek, the other day you called me the only man in the world worth a damn and wished I was a real person because you'd marry me. Then that night I yelled at your door until you let me in and you were quick to open your second drawer in the night stand to put away your vi-"

"ALRIGHT THAT'S ENOUGH I BELIEVE YOU!" You quickly cut him off while covering your heated face, turning away while burring your face in the neck of the sweater you wore.

"So should I call you fiancé?"

You shot the Cheshire grinning cat a nasty glare as he popped the final piece of chicken into his mouth. You ran your hands vigorously over your face as you took in everything that had occurred in the last few hours. The buzzing of your phone made you jump a bit, you peered at the flashing screen to read the name of your red haired best friend. Swiping your thumb you answered the call as Bakugo watched you closely.

"Hey Kiri what's up?"

Grumbles so low from the cat across from you interrupted before the redhead could even speak. "Fucking mutt." You cocked a brow making a mental note to ask him about that after the phone call when said best friend spoke.

"What's wrong with you?"

Damn him for catching the weariness in your tone of voice.

"Nothing Kirishima, what did you call for?"

"I got your car fixed. I'm going to drop if off shortly okay?"

Bakugo slammed his hands down on the table, making you fumble the phone before slapping your hands together and catching the phone just before it hit the ground. "No!"

Lifting the phone you could hear Kirishima's distant voice asking if you were okay. Putting the phone back to your ear you shot the cat eared man a confused glance and he shook his head quickly, ears flopping back and forth.

"Sorry, dropped my phone. Cat startled me."

He chuckled a bit "Was that a guy I heard? If you have someone over you could just say that."

Your jaw about hit the floor as you backpedaled. "No! No guy, Bakugo just scared me!" It really wasn't a lie…

"It's okay, you need this after our stressful week at school. I'll bring it by tomorrow. You kids have fun!" The redhead disconnected the call after his sing song tone and you stared at your home screen in disbelief.

This day was so fucked.

"The fuck is your problem?" You snapped, eyes finding the messy haired blonde who shrugged. He picked at his teeth with one of his longer nails, "My house, no dogs allowed."

Taking a deep breath you pinched the bridge of your nose. "First, I'm pretty sure this is my place since I pay all the bills. Secondly, you keep mentioning "Dog" "Mutt" and even pouted when Kirishima called…. Why?"

His ears flattened to his head and his nose wrinkled in disgust. "I do not pout!"

You cocked a brow as he scoffed, "Because Kirishima is a mutt."

You hopped from your chair, marching over and stuck your finger in his face. He looked up at you while searching for your audacity. "That's my best friend. You watch what you say!"

His crimson eyes visibly rolled so hard you thought they were going to pop out of his head. "I'm not saying anything bad about him, it's the truth. He is a mutt. A Dog… He's a Hybrid."

Your eyes widened like saucers, searching his unimpressed expression as you sat in the chair beside him. "He's… a dog hybrid? I've never seen him with a tail or ears like you!" He nodded, standing to pick up the bowls and place them in the sink.

He turned to face you and with his hands on his hips, you observed as his ears flattened against his head to blend with messy hair. The tail that had been flipping behind him slowly became shorter by the second until it was gone and Bakugo stood looking as human as any other person.

"Holy shit you can do that!" You gasped and he snorted.

"Of course I can do that! Why do you think Hybrids are unknown? We can blend among the humans? I chose to be in my cat form because I was "owned" by someone and thought they loved me. I spent a few years on my own, met Kirishima and some of his rowdy idot friends who wouldn't leave me alone! We fell off after an argument about blending in and you know the rest…"

He shook his head and the soft looking ears reappeared along with his tail. Crossing to the living space he stretched out over his normal space on the couch, eyes closing lazily without a care. You now found yourself in the messy kitchen he had caused, looking around at the many items he had just left laying while he now lay himself on the couch. You grit your teeth as he laid there without a single worry as if he paid the bills in the house.

Tip toeing over pans and bowls you found yourself behind the couch after snatching something from the nearby table, his ear twitching in acknowledgement to your presence. You leaned over and asked in your sweetest voice.

"Bakugo, can you please clean up your mess in the kitchen?" He cracked one eye to give you a once over before it closed again with a "No."

You cocked a brow before standing to your full height and raised the bane of your cat's exsistence. The first shot hit him in the face and both ears immediately flatted against his head, eyes flying open as he reared back into the couch.

"What the hell?" He snarled while baring his elongated canines, you simply smiled and asked again. "Mess? Kitchen?"

He huffed while crossing his arms, "Your house, you clean it up!" Your eye twitched as the most sickening grin crossed your features, panic crossing his own when you raised the object once again earning a loud hiss from his throat.

"Last warning or you get the spray bottle Bakugo!" His eyes narrowed into slits as he leaned forward.

"You wouldn't dare!"

A chuckle of defiance left you, fingers squeezing in rapid sucession as the water slapped him in the face at least twice before he rolled for cover off the couch.

"ALRIGHT STOP! I'LL CLEAN UP THE FUCKING MESS!" You held the bottle threateningly as he let out a low growl in warning.

"Good boy."

HIs face heated and tail began flicking excitedly, his long fingers gripping it behind his back to hide his joy. He couldn't let you hold something over his head like that!

With grumbles and glances to make sure you were keeping his enemy at bay, he replaced every object he had thrown to the ground after washing them thoroughly. Satisfied you smiled as he dropped into the spot beside you on the couch, leaning back into the backrest with a large pout on his handsome face.

"Aw somebody upsetti spagetti?"

He rolled his eyes and ducked your hand when you attempted to tussle his hair. A snicker left your lips while you returned your attention back to your favorite show. Silence fell between the two of you, legs curling up underneath you to be more comfortable as the next episode's theme began to play. It took another one until a large weight suddenly fell into your lap and you let out a choice word with your breath.

You found Bakugo resting his head against your legs, eyes closed and eyebrows furrowed as if this was the largest inconvenience in the world. Testing the waters your reached out slowly and brushed the tips of your fingers against his ears, they twitched for a brief moment before pressing into your hand. Brave now you thread your fingers through the soft locks of the messy haired hybrid, his eyebrows every so slowly releasing the tension. Your gaze explored the details of his handsome face while you continued to pet his hair.

He had the sharpest jaw you had ever seen, equally straight nose and flawless skin that was so soft as you ran your fingers from his hair down along his jaw. A rattle emanated from his chest just as those vibrant crimson eyes became visible once again, watching you with interest. You shot him a soft affectionate smile just as he raised his hand to catch your wrist. You could definitely get used to this. He brought the hand closer to him, taking a deep inhale.

"You still stink."

He hit the floor with a thump, landing on his hands and knees. "The fuck?" Snarling he bared his teeth as you huffed.

"Do not make me get the spray bottle."

He rolled his eyes and returned to the couch. He lifted your arms to your protests and threw them over his shoulders. Your face heated as he leaned forward and wrapped his thick arms around your waist. You yelped as he constricted them and pulled you into his lap snuggly, your face burring into his chest. You blinked rapidly as the low rattle of his purring began again, he lowered his face against your hair to rub back and forth for a few minutes before he finally just sat there holding you. His grip tightened around your waist as he buried his face into your shoulder.

"Thank you."

You tensed at his whisper, sliding your head up to look at him. "For what?" You asked in an equally hushed tone.

"For taking care of me. Returning me back to… me."

You leaned back when he loosened the grip around your waist, the expression on his face somber as he gazed at you. Offering him a soft smile you wrapped your arms around his neck and pulled him in tightly.

"You're welcome Katsuki."

Taglist: @lunrai @nonomesupposedto @j-brielmalfoy @bitchimaghost2

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runningatypufullspeed · 6 months

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@vostokmcclellan you have no clue what you have just unleashed within me. You reap what you sow. You have asked, and you shall DEFINITELY receive

Intoduction to C,honny jash 🔥🔥🔥 (no way fire... like from *gets shot)

CLAPS HANDS TOGETHER OKAY. OKAY. so chonny jash is this really cool singer guy song cover man on YouTube he makes some really good goddamn music and if you like tally hall, will wood, lemon demon (all other alternative/indie music creators and bands) then you MIGHT like him.

I think his most popular work/the work that gets most people invested into his music in the first place would be his album CCCC (chonny’s charming chaos compendium) which is a cover album consisting of songs that were originally from tally hall before jash took the lyrics and the music and like. Molded it to fit his ocs. That’s the best way I can describe it.

The three main characters of this album would be Heart, Mind, and Soul, and people (including me) GO ABSOLUTELY NUTS OVER THEM jash’s writing and singing and like general music skills are so good if you want to get into this album I’d seriously consider checking out his mind electric video first (the twelve minute one, it has 3 songs in total and they all do a pretty good job of introducing all three characters respectively).

Not only is the music like REALLY FUCKING GOOD the entire. Differentiation between sepereate characters based off of jash's artistic skills thing + motifs/symbolism for each one is extremely well thought out and the relationships between the three of these guys are CRAZY and TOXIC and RIVETING and bottom line SUPER GODDAMN RELATABLE to the vast majority of those in his audience. I would definitely recommend it if you enjoy concept albums/piecing together a story based off of several songs for me it was certainly an arduous process but BOY was it rewarding.

The lore/message itself is mostly up to listener interpretation but I personally like to think of that album as being centered around how valuable self acceptance is, how important communication and understanding and empathy is in a relationship, learning to break free from the bars that society cages one within, and just general dealings/causations of psychological turmoil. I think that what I like the MOST about CCCC tho is how lax/free you can be with your interpretations. it allows a LOT of space for creative liberty and overall message variation, and I like that. I like that very much.

OH and if you enjoy witty lyricism/enjoy having a bunch of allusions that you can rabbit-hole yourself into then you’ll probably like chonny jash . His stuff is like a puzzle but in video/music form. Anyway chonny jash changed my life I think everybody should listen to and look at the lyrics of one of his songs at least once in their life this shit is so good

Tergun 🤤

AND . AND TRIGUN. TRIGUN ISN’T A VIDEO GAME it’S a space western anime. Well OKAY it was originally a manga from the 90s that got adapted into an anime in the late 90s and then ANOTHER newer anime in 2023 so it’s actually just a broad term for these 3 pieces of media .

This is very general btw and while all adaptations go about it in different ways all of them center around the same plot; humans completely NERFED earth so they sent out these ships in order to find another habitable planet, and this mission is called “project seeds”. Aboard these ships are a bunch of humans put into cold sleep but OBVIOUSLY they can’t survive without resources, so alongside the cold sleep people are these human-made organisms called “Plants” who produce the necessities + more that humans need to survive.

Still with me? Ok So everything’s all fine and dandy, but then suddenly due to an event that I cannot disclose because of spoiler related reasons these ships CRASH on a deserted sandy desolate planet, and the remaining humans are then forced to survive solely off of the remaining plants (since all the technology from the spacefaring age was lost in the crash).

Now that the worldbuilding stuff’s outta the way, the main character is this dude named Vash the Stampede who is constantly being chased and hunted down because of this CRAZY bounty he’s got on his head and this is where . The main themes of Trigun start to shine through. It’s about morality and the lives of other people, about the cycles of abuse that lead to why people do certain things and it dives quite deep into the psychological and philosophical aspects ESPECIALLY since this is like a “kill or be killed” world and the main character ALWAYS chooses NOT to kill, no matter what.

I started out with watching the newest adaptation (Trigun stampede) but there’s no right or wrong order to consume the three medias, so start with whichever one you’d like ,,,, assuming you do want to start watching it, anyway.

Judging from what little i know about ur interests, I think trigun would be more up your alley BUT ALSO chonny jash is so good ESPECIALLY CCCC AND ESPECIALLY IF YOU ENJOY A SMALLER AMOUNT OF CHARACTERS COUGH COUGH COUGH but it's ultimately up to you, this is all assuming you'd wanna delve into anything in the first place. anyway yeah rant over . 👍

#runny’s rants #I know this is an f451 acc but bear with me here #the brainrot has hit #me spewing my twisted gospel #these are (somewhat) old-ish hpfxs btw so if I got some things wrong I apologize #cough #stinkygirldays pee you!!!!!!! 😡#unshowered #I love acting like I know what I’m talking about #yapathon #kinda copied my friend at the trigun part I was having somewhat of a hard time remembering I am a #fake fan

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quitealotofsodapop · 1 year

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Since Mac gas to deal with Azure's unrequited pining on Wukong, does Wukong have any unrequited love rivals of his husband he have to deal with?

Also is this live rival(s) situation happen to other Wukongs?

hehhehe

For LMK Shadowpeach:

Wukong has witnessed many a being try and romance his beloved Macaque; as monkeys of FFM (fellow primate demons), as attendants to the gods (celestials), and now as settled couple in the mortal realm (demons and humans alike). And while Mac has no interest in anyone else, Mac does love how possessive Wukong gets of him at the slightest sniff of a love rival. Mac attracts a fair bit of attention when he starts living in the human world -mostly from fellow theatre nerds and handsy fans. SWK quickly puts out any hope in his love rivals hearts when he goes to collect Mac after a play. This monkey is willing to perform public indecency to scare off any threats to his lovelife. Mac loves it >:3

For the other Wukongs; a few def have present love rivals. Two of them I'm especially willing to discuss.

For the HeroIsBack!Shadowpeach:

Since their story takes place many years before the events of JttW; SWK and his LEM encounter the still-single Nine-Headed Beast. Imagine just nine teenage dorks in the same body falling over themselves trying to impress the "beautiful shadowy warrior" that is Macaque. They aren't a very good rival though, more Milhouse than Gaston you know?

But then comes White Deer Spirit of Biqiu... who's a lot more interested in stealing Liuer (golden cicada soul looking tasty) and the Stone Egg for his alchemy than Mac, but hey he can be the honeypot when he wants to. He endears himself to the small pilgrim group as a fellow single parent (using the much younger White-Faced Vixen Spirit as his daughter like in the Jttw), and he then starts making the romantic moves on Mac. HeroIsBack!SWK is not happy.

Luckily their new spider girl gang buddies are quick to recognise a no-good manstealer when they sees one and warn the monkeys ahead of time. HeroIsBack!Macaque meanwhile is like; "Tbh I was just hungry for venison. But seeing Dasheng do that endless heart trick, and go primeval on a guy is doing something for me." <3

HeroIsBack will immedately challenge any love rivals to combat, and then take their adopted kids as his own - White-Faced Vixen (Shui Lian/睡莲 I've decided to call her) needs a stable home after all, and not a dad that would present her as a concubine to a creepy king decades older than her.

Reborn!Shadowpeach:

These two have to deal with more... mutually unwanted affections.

Reborn!SWK and his LEM meet in the buddhist-and-demon-unfriendly Cart-Slow Kingdom, both unable to leave for sometime because of "passport troubles" (ie, Tripitaka getting captured for SWK. Trying to hide a stowaway for LEM). I'll be making a whole post about how these two meet very soon. ;)

Then the three Daoist demon priests running the kingdom (Tiger-Strength, Deer-Strength, and Goat-Strength) see two beautiful, powerful monkey demons and decide that they want wives. Both Reborn Wukong and Macaque are unhappy about this - Bajie, Ao Lie, and Sandy have to organise a simultaneous monk and wedding heist.

Later on, Reborn!SWK assumes there is a love rival for Reborn!Mac and gets a little sad-but-happy for his potiential soulmate... only for the person to turn out to be a certain demon holding a debt over Mac's head >:3

Lets just say anyone who comes between a Shadowpeach pairing is doomed to failure.

#shadowpeach #lmk shadowpeach au #lego monkie kid #lmk #wukongverse #the monkey king and the infant #the monkey king and the infant au #monkey king hero is back #monkey king reborn

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digitaldoeslmk · 1 year

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So what would be your eq 1 the start of the magic adventures after DBK attack……. It’s a mk get an eaten, isn’t it? Sooooo how the crew react to that?

yes and no, i imagine the events of the first three eps occurs pretty similarly and before The Incident, except for ep1 cus Red Son doesn't try to take the weather tower and MK doesn't have invincibility. He does accidentally wrecks the tower's antenna with the staff and him and Wukong decide to seal off some of his powers until he can get a handle on them. The clone fiasco and the Mei sleepover though happens as in canon.

It's at that time that MK gets into another shady delivery location and well, he's the one on the menu. He's missing for about four days total, its late in the second day that Red Son hears about the rumor about a human feast from his parents (he has dinner with them once in a while, it's awkward as all hell but he can't bear to say no to spending time with his parents), and he goes to investigate, which leads him to a lot of geographical damage and a fight or flight mode monkey MK. after calming him down he takes him back to the Flaming Mountains to clean up and bounce off the shock somewhere safe.

he finds the carnage MK left behind and all the signs of the culprits of said feast and well, time to find out if the looters took any um, souvenirs, and of course get MK's own version of the story. MK does reach out to Pigsy once his phone is fixed (he can't remember his phone number for the life of him) and reassures everyone he's okay.

by the third day Wukong hears about what happened and makes An Entrance about it, hole on the roof and everything. him and Red Son talk over the details, and MK and Wukong have a serious talk about well, the occupational hazards. after bouncing off the worst ofit, Red Son drives MK back to Megapolis and the gang sits down to talk and hear why MK was MIA all this time.

Pigsy almost pops a vessel and a heart chamber, Tang faints, Mei sits down by Red Son to ask very calmly if there are any missing culprits she needs to find. Sandy is pretty much on damage control mode with MK's dads cus they do be highkey losing it. Pigsy rounds up on Red Son but he lets the demon vent his worries, he can handle a badmouthed concerned parent.

needless to say MK is benched for a good while there, Pigsy and Mei almost like two guard dogs around him. Tang and Sandy try their best to support everyone and each other though cus, really, it's A Lot. Luckily they got Red Son on the team now, and he's quite adept at crisis control and emotional support training.

#lmk au #by the book au

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galtx · 5 months

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GALTx eNews: We Are Turning 23!

Twenty-three years ago, a small group of dedicated Greyhound enthusiasts got together at Stoneleigh P in Dallas and Greyhound Adoption League of Texas was born! Please join us to celebrate our birthday and the 4,000 hounds we have helped find forever homes over the years! We will be at the Conner Pavilion at Lake Park (600 Sandy Beach Road, Lewisville, Texas, 75057) on April 28, 2024, from 11:00 to 2:00.

Admission is only $10 per person and children under ten get in free. The state park also charges a $10 per car parking fee. Our birthday party entertainment includes:

Greyhound nail trims for $10, first come, first served;

Reiki by Suzanne Burke, ten minute sessions by appointment for $10;

Animal communicator;

Hound contests;

Vendor shopping, including LePope Designs, Sandy Bohannon, Beth Rodney, and GreytStore staples;

Volunteer recognition;

Caricature paintings of your hounds by Mary Beth Gibson, $35 for one hound or $50 for two hounds in the same painting;

No mess paintings by your hound for $10;

Raffles, $5.00 for 3 tickets (not available via PayPal); and

and a live auction!

With the purchase of a $10 cup, beer is free. We'll provide hummus for humans and cake for the hounds. You can bring your own picnic lunch or pre-order lunch from Mezes and More starting at $10 per person. Admission tickets are available in advance on our website or at the door, but you need to pre-order lunch by noon on Saturday, April 27, 2024. When you order your admission tickets, please also order your beer cups, reiki sessions, nail trims, paintings, and other extras.

As always, our volunteers make our events "greyt" and we need your help. Please click here to sign up to volunteer for the event. We have lots of different opportunities, something for everyone.

If you would like to give a birthday gift to help us welcome more hounds to the GALT family this year and in the years to come, you can give either to our Facebook Birthday Fundraiser or on our website. Thank you and we can't wait to see you there!

4/18/24

#greyhounds #dogblr #snootblr #dogs #greyhound #greyblr #sighthounds #galtx enews #pets #greyhound adoption #23 #birthday party #Happy birthday #Dallas Events

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linkemon · 6 days

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Nandemonaiya (Haku x Reader)

Friendly reminder that English is not my first language. You can check my Masterlists both in English and Polish here. Consider supporting me on Ko-fi. You can also check out my commissions if you’re interested.

Other oneshots can be found here.

ɪɴ ᴏʀᴅᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴀᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ᴛᴇᴍᴘʟᴇ ꜰɪɴᴀɴᴄɪᴀʟʟʏ, [ʀᴇᴀᴅᴇʀ] ɪꜱ ᴀꜱꜱɪɢɴᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ʙᴀᴛʜʜᴏᴜꜱᴇ. ꜱʜᴇ ᴅᴏᴇꜱɴ'ᴛ ᴋɴᴏᴡ ʏᴇᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ʜᴇʀ ᴇᴍᴘʟᴏʏᴇʀ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ᴀ ʀᴇᴀʟ ᴡɪᴛᴄʜ. ꜱʜᴇ ɪꜱ ꜱᴀᴠᴇᴅ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴀ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋᴅᴏᴡɴ ʙʏ ʜᴀᴋᴜ. ᴀ ʙᴏʏ ᴡʜᴏ ᴅᴏᴇꜱɴ'ᴛ ʀᴇᴍᴇᴍʙᴇʀ ᴡʜᴏ ʜᴇ ɪꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡᴀɴᴛꜱ ʜᴇʀ ᴛᴏ ᴀᴠᴏɪᴅ ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴀᴍᴇ ꜰᴀᴛᴇ ᴀᴛ ᴀʟʟ ᴄᴏꜱᴛꜱ…

[Reader] casts one last glance toward the shrine. A black roof covered in moss. A red tori gate standing out against the greenery. A few sisters heading to one of the rituals. Everything was as usual, except for the man standing at the top of the stairs. He emerged from the evening mist, looking off into the distance. He stroked his long beard thoughtfully.

The current kannushi was so old that she had only seen him a few times, at major events. He could barely handle his work. None of the young men wanted to replace him. He had no children either. He had placed all his hopes in orphans like her. But for several years now, there had not been a single boy of the right age to learn. Several had passed away before his health failed and the only one left was only three years old. The fact that the monk had come out to see her off seemed oddly suspicious to her.

She adjusted her bag, trying to understand what had happened last night. Right after dinner, the man had called her over. He didn't say much. It was mostly Annaisha-san explaining the situation to her. [Reader] had always respected the eldest miko. But she couldn't stop the angry and frustrated words from the bottom of her heart. Why did she have to leave? And she was the only one? Everyone else would stay here in peace and do what they always did. Meanwhile, she was going to change her entire life to work at some bathhouse, for a woman she'd never heard of before. That wasn't what she meant when she said she wanted adventure.

— How long will I stay there? — the girl asked, trailing behind Annaisha.

—As long as will be needed — the woman replied. She didn’t turn to look at her once. — Did you pack everything I asked you to?

— Yes. — [Reader] thought back to the stinking ball in her bag. Did her employer have a moth problem? All she had been told was to smell good and throw in another one just to be on the safe side.

The sea of green gave way to a sandy path. The tiny grains were still slightly damp from the humidity. She had been in this area many times but it seemed as if she had never seen this place before. A tunnel loomed before her, from which darkness peered out. The statue of a minor god seemed to bore into her with a piercing gaze.

— Listen. — Miko finally stopped and gently grabbed her by the shoulders. — I know it's hard for you but it's the only hope to save our home. I don't know my parents and neither do you. This place has been my haven my whole life and I believe you feel the same way, so on behalf of everyone, I'm asking you for help. When you were little, you said how much you wanted to travel. Think of this as a chance to learn something new. I'm sure your work will help us all get back on our feet and you'll be with us again soon.

[Reader] didn't know what to say. She hugged the older woman, wishing she didn't have to let go at all. The woman silently patted her on the head, then led her deeper into the tunnel.

On the other side, she was greeted by something resembling a train station. She thought she could hear a train but she couldn't see the tracks anywhere. She hurried past dusty benches and four-coloured windows. Outside, she was greeted by the clearest sky she had ever seen. It was a bit odd, considering it was long past noon. Blue reigned over her head as she crossed the green grass. She had to admit that the place, full of flowers and crisscrossed by tiny streams, was breathtaking.

— Is this an open-air museum? — she asked, curious, seeing a row of buildings in the distance.

— Something like that. — Miko’s response was quiet.

[Reader] walked past the abandoned buildings, feeling a growing unease. She looked around, trying to find anyone selling tickets or tourists but there was no sign of anyone. Maybe the place had gone out of business? But if that was the case, why did she still see steaming delicacies at one of the stalls?

— Don't touch anything! — the woman warned her as she saw her approach the skewers. — That's why I told you to take our onigiri. — She looked anxiously in the direction they had come from. — It's getting late. Listen to me carefully. In that direction — she pointed — there's a bathhouse. It's only a few buildings from here. Wait until it gets dark. Then eat anything. Fruit, a leaf, grass, it doesn't matter. Just remember not to eat anything from the stalls. Then go inside the building right away. Look for Yubaba. She's the one who's supposed to hire you.

— Can't you take me there? — The girl felt fear creeping up on her.

— No. It's... a tradition — Annaisha finished awkwardly. With that, she turned around and quickly began to walk back.

[Reader], alone in the large square, looked around uncertainly. Maybe it was just her imagination but it was getting colder. The sun seemed to be setting unusually quickly as she searched for her future workplace. She wrapped her arms around herself, trying to ward off some of the cold. As dusk fell, panic gripped her. The lamps were slowly turning on and she still didn't know where she was. Fortunately, a moment later she breathed a sigh of relief at the sight of a wooden plaque announcing that she had come to the right place. She leaned over one of the herbs growing from under the concrete and picked a tiny leaf. It didn't taste good, so she swallowed it quickly. However, when she raised her head, her scream died in her throat. She instinctively backed away, clinging to the brick wall. A monster was moving a few meters away from her, in the pale light. The creature was black. It seemed to be crawling over the stones. Right behind it, a whole row of something that looked like ghosts was wandering. Transparent bodies glided over the ground. They were lined up to the bathhouse she was about to enter. Terrified, she wanted to go back. But when she looked back at the place she had come from, she noticed that it was covered in water. She shook her head. She had to pinch herself. It was definitely just a dream. But no matter how many times she blinked, the image remained the same. The stairs ended in something like a wide river. In the distance, on the other side, something glowed that looked like the abandoned train station she had passed earlier. Suddenly, Annaisha's nervousness made sense. Had she known something like this would happen? Was that why she had left her alone in such a hurry?

— What are you doing here? — The quiet but firm voice seemed genuinely surprised to see her there.

Terrified, she wanted to scream but a hand stopped her. A boy appeared before her eyes, about her age. He was wearing work clothes. To her relief, his form was completely human. Seeing that she had calmed down, he removed his hand from her mouth.

— You shouldn’t be here. — He looked at her closely. Her clothes told him a bit about who she was dealing with. Just to be sure, he followed the strange scent. He reached into his bag, pulling out an herbal pill. Just as he expected. — Are you from the temple? — he asked, wanting to finally confirm his suspicions.

She nodded, afraid to speak.

— It's not safe here. Come with me. — He stood up and held out his hand.

He looked around the area anxiously. He paid no attention to the ghosts, though. He stared at the increasingly darkening sky.

— What are... Who are...? — The girl didn't know how to ask about the strange creatures. However, her interlocutor understood in the blink of an eye.

— Didn't the temple tell you where they were sending you? We have gods, spirits, demons and many others. People like you are rarely seen here.

— I'm looking for Yubaba. I heard she runs this bathhouse. — [Reader] felt like her voice sounded unfamiliar.

— I work for her. You came to the right place but at the wrong time…

Whatever the employee wanted to say, he didn't have time. A black silhouette passing by turned a strange head in his direction. He blew in response. The air was filled with the beautiful scent of cherry blossoms. Pink momentarily obscured the world. The mysterious stranger quickly pulled [Reader] after him and disappeared into another dark alley. The girl could swear that she had never run so fast in her life. She didn't even know she was capable of reaching such speed. It was as if she was racing against the wind.

— I just bought us some time. No one can find you for now. Not until we get you a job. I'll cast a spell on you and you'll become invisible. The only place you need to be careful is the bridge. When you step on it, take a deep breath and don't breathe until you step off. Meet me on the other side. Is that clear?

— Can you say that aga… — She didn’t have time to ask. Another wave of tiny flowers blocked her vision.

When she opened her eyes, she was standing only a few steps away from the huge red bridge leading to the bath house. When had she even traveled that distance?

Her guide had already stepped onto the wooden planks, weaving between the various figures. She wanted to cry but she held back her tears. She didn't have time for that now. She took a deep breath and ran after him. She didn't look back. A frog was loudly conversing with those entering. She was about to pass her when a giant loomed in front of her. Whatever he was, he was several meters tall. His rusty body resembled a shapeless mass with holes for eyes. He settled in the middle, filling the entire space. The creatures began to speak to him in strange languages she didn't understand. Her lungs seemed to be burning as she tried unsuccessfully to squeeze past. She had to do something and do it quickly. She looked around frantically. There was a branch lying nearby. It must have fallen from one of the few trees. She picked it up, praying that whatever was in front of her wouldn't turn out to be a god. She didn't want to displease him. She stuck the stick into the red mass. Something gurgled and shrank as if in pain. She rushed forward, finding the black shag.

— You did it. — He whispered. — Follow me.

Contrary to appearances, they didn't go inside. He led her down a small path next door. Then they started down the stairs. In contrast to the splendor that greeted her from the front, this one was much dingier. They passed machinery. A series of pipes that probably carried water. Some of them hissed, others leaked slightly. They went outside again. This time they headed up. At one point, she stopped and looked down. It was a mistake. She hadn't realized how high up she was. She crouched on a narrow step with her head between her knees. It was too much.

— Are you okay? — A warm hand rested on her shoulder.

— Not really. What am I even doing here? I'm a few hundred meters above the ground. If not higher. If there's even ground down there! And we just left. How is that even possible? There are things around me that you only read about in fairy tales. You can do magic. And I was only supposed to work for a nice old lady. Everything is wrong! — Tears flowed thickly, disappearing somewhere in the strange space beneath her feet.

— Come on, come on...— He hugged her and patted her head. — It's always hard at first. When I got here, I didn't know much either and I was alone. And you have me. — He gave her a reassuring smile.

— But… I don’t know you — she stuttered, trying to calm down.

— Call me... call me Haku.

— [Reader]. — She wiped her tears with the sleeve of her robe.

Sniffling, she followed her new acquaintance, who never once let go of her hand the rest of the way. She was grateful for that. She wasn't sure if at some point she wouldn't just start running back to the entrance, just to look back at where she had come from.

She should have been prepared for Haku's familiarity to be just as strange as the rest of the magical world but for some reason she expected a figure similar to him. So when something like a giant spider emerged from the warm air, she hid behind the boy's back. Eight arms worked in superhuman symbiosis, feeding coal to the furnace.

— [Reader], meet Kamajī. He'll find you a job…

[Reader] grabbed a warm bun and stuffed it all into her mouth. She wrapped the rest carelessly in a white scarf. Her boss — a giant rat — added his latest baked good to the mix, then went on a break. He showed his not-so-clean teeth in what she assumed was a smile. He seemed pleased with her dishes today. She nodded to a few of the workers and ran downstairs. She couldn’t understand any of the cooks. They probably couldn’t understand a single word she was saying either. They were a motley crew of different species. It was hard at first but somehow they managed to work together. The longer she thought about it, the less she could tell how long they’d been together. Time seemed to flow differently here. She felt like she’d been working long hours, although the days seemed to drag on, too.

Getting the job was harder than the job itself. Just thinking about her first days in this world gave her the shivers. Meeting the head of the bathhouse was something she wanted to forget. She would never in her life displease her. Yubaba was a witch. In the literal sense of the word. A huge head and big eyes, as if staring into her soul. She didn't want to hire [Reader] for anything.

In the old days, when she was still starting her business, she needed workers more than ever. People who were more familiar with the spirit world than others would come to her place. Some shrines or temples would deliberately send their miko there to receive payments or blessings in return. But over time, everything grew. And the owner stuck with her promise to give work to anyone who asked for it. Now, however, she did it reluctantly. So she tried to scare off interested people in every way possible.

[Reader] couldn't just leave where she came from. She didn't really have anywhere to go back to. Yubaba had said she wouldn't pay the shrine anyway, which would mean ruining her home. She also didn't want to look into the faces of the people who had placed such high hopes in her only to be disappointed. Even if she was angry at Annaisha, she still remembered the years she had taken care of her. Besides, she had prepared her as best she could, even though she had lied. She had given her bullets that would mask the scent of humans among the inhabitants of this reality. She had also prepared a wooden tablet. On it, she had carved her name in kanji. As it turned out, so important.

So she begged for her job with annoying persistence all evening. The boss's opulent office provided ample opportunities for her to show how strong she was. The witch worked her magic stubbornly to get rid of the young girl. She started by throwing a stack of papers at her face, ending with strange folding birds that wanted to peck her. Then she corrected it with a blazing fire from the fireplace and three heads that constantly jumped on the colourful, fringed carpet. Finally, irritated, she threatened to turn her into a pig. This made [Reader] turn her head toward Haku. The boy had warned her that they had to act like strangers. But she hadn't expected him to be so cold. He seemed like the complete opposite of the person she had met earlier. He didn't even blink when she screamed when she saw the pig's tail sticking out of the back of her robe. Accompanied by shrill laughter, she screamed that she needed a job. This caused Yubaba to close her powerful mouth, sighing loudly. She waved her hand and the tail disappeared. She gave up and handed her the contract with boredom, complaining about the ill-mannered youth. Help in the kitchen in exchange for room and board. She had little choice. As soon as the girl's name landed on the paper, she changed it. Several characters flew into the air, leaving her with a new identity. The boy had warned [Reader] that this would happen. That was why the tablet she had brought with her was so precious. Since then, she had written her old name in places she visited regularly. So that she could remind herself of it. The witch gained power over the employees because she stole their names. Over time, they forgot who they were, only to stay forever and work as long as they were able. Just like Haku.

— Faster than me, as always. Do you even sleep?

— Sometimes. — Haku smiled mysteriously.

She had never seen him sleep or doze off but he had a lot of responsibilities. His job was one of the most responsible in the entire bathhouse. He was always on his feet from the crack of dawn until dusk.

He hid in their favourite spot, in the middle of the flower maze. The azaleas and oleanders were a mosaic of pink and orange. The rising sun coloured the white camellias, which still had dew on them. The boy was just finishing watering the plants. It wasn't part of his duties. He simply liked doing it. Ever since she learned that he was always here at this time, she had come to visit him. She leaned against the dark hedge. She closed her eyes for a moment to enjoy the cool air.

— What’s for breakfast today? — he asked, looking into the basket.

— For gods magic goo, for demons magic goo and for spirits…

— Let me guess, also magic goo? — Haku finished for her. — Good thing all I see here are buns. — He bit into one as he said that.

Food for the creatures of this world almost never looked tasty. It was usually gruel or soup. They had flavours and many of them reminded [Reader] of ingredients she knew but what she put into the huge pots looked unfamiliar. Only magic could turn liquids into dishes that resembled home-cooked food. She was still learning it. It wasn't an unattainable skill but it required time and focus. Something that the kitchen lacked during meal times, when she could practice it. Haku, as Yubaba's apprentice, helped her a lot. She couldn't count on a rat boss. He showed her gestures with his paws and what the end result should look like but he couldn't explain in words what she should do.

— How are you? — She leaned against Haku's shoulder.

— Very good. You’re getting better and better. — He reached for another piece.

— I think I’ll be promoted soon — [Reader] mused.

The boss liked her. Magic was getting better and better. Plus she had friends around her. When she first found herself in this world, she was terrified. Now she had her life in order.

— I made you a new tablet — Haku said, pulling a piece of wood from his robe.

Carefully carved kanji characters. Beautiful calligraphy. So perfect. Almost too perfect.

— Another one? I told you to drop it.

The boy kept insisting that she repeat her old name. It irritated her. It was enough that she did it once a day. And he produced such reminders and left them in various places so that she would come into contact with them as often as possible. She left the orphanage and the temple behind. In that world, she was practically a nobody. Here, she had a chance to be somebody. She really mattered to someone. She didn't need to constantly think about the past.

— It's important. You'll get out of here someday, and then...

She didn't let him finish. She abruptly stood up, irritated.

— Again with this! We've been through this before. There's no escape from here. Yubaba knows everything that happens here. There's a slim chance and I'm not going to take it. I know you're hurting because you don't remember who you are but I'm not you!

A shadow of resentment crossed his warm face. Barely noticeable but still. She felt a pang of guilt but she knew she was also right. He was projecting some of his resentment onto her. He had made a decision long ago that he now regretted. He didn't know himself and for years it had been eating him up inside. Who was he? What did he like to do? Where was his home?

— It's true. I regret becoming Yubaba's apprentice. That's why I want to save you from what I myself can never escape. What happened to your dreams? When I met you, you said you wanted to see the world. Are you going to give up? — Haku gently grabbed her by the shoulders, as if to talk some sense into her.

— Dreams change. I have a new life now. You're one of the reasons I don't want to leave here. You should be happy. — [Reader] smacked his hand away.

— Me? — Haku's face showed shock.

— Is it so strange that I love you? — The girl seemed to not immediately realize what she had said. But once she did, she did not intend to take her words back.

The boy didn't answer. He simply hugged her tightly. It wasn't like he hadn't seen how their relationship had begun to go beyond friendship. It had happened a long time ago. Subtle smiles. Holding hands. Spending every free moment together. Thoughts of her that haunted him while he worked. He had put the pieces of the puzzle together a long time ago. But hearing those words from her alone seemed to finally seal what was between them. He couldn't just leave it like that...

Haku said goodbye to Yubaba with a stony face. The witch draped herself in pitch-black feathers. She looked at him longer than usual but he held her piercing gaze. Had she guessed?

— I'm leaving the business in your hands. See to everything. — With these words she took to the air and flew out through the open window.

He let out a long-held breath. The festival was no problem. Everything was practically ready. A wealthy client had simply fallen from the sky. Ever since he had requested a big event, the entire bathhouse had been trying to prepare one for him. Yubaba would have liked to have been rushing the workers all evening but for some unknown reason she had left the bath house in a hurry.

Haku walked out in front of the building. The usually empty booths were still filling up with new guests. The bath attendants were just starting their shift, rushing through the line of people gathered in line. Luckily, [Reader] was already finishing up. She was standing next to the boss, nibbling on the food on display. He waved hello to them. Then, without a word, he grabbed the girl's hand and headed for the stone steps.

— Where are we going? — She looked pleased as she munched on the magic skewer.

— To one of my favourite places. It’s almost always flooded but today the water level was low enough. — With that, he led her through the crowd of ghosts.

He hoped the workers would manage without him for a while. The streets were swarming with capricious gods.

They crossed a flowery meadow. The buds closed from the lack of sunlight. Shadows seemed to thicken around the buildings without light. Haku felt a tighter grip on his hand.

— Are you sure we can go this far? — [Reader] looked around uncertainly.

— We'll be fine. Yubaba left and it doesn't look like she'll be back anytime soon.

The further they walked, the further they got from the baths. She passed places that had long since faded from her memory. This was where she had walked when she first came to this land. If she looked closely, she could even make out the abandoned train station. The one she had passed through long ago.

It was only when she saw the lights that she understood where they were headed. In the middle of the meadows was a tree surrounded by thousands of fireflies. It was huge. Its spreading branches reached high into the air. It had completely dried out. She could still see the empty riverbed that had once flowed here. The birds that had once lived here had left behind only empty nests. The sight might have seemed eerie but to her it only brought sadness.

Haku felt connected for the tree for some reason. He didn't remember it. But he felt like he had seen it in his previous life. The sight of its death filled him with sorrow, though he couldn't imagine what it might have been like in life. [Reader] didn't interrupt his story. She laid her head on his lap, as she had done for a long time and let him speculate. Stories of how he imagined himself before. What might have happened to him in the past. A cool wind with the scent of cherry blossoms carried his stories across the meadow. They flew away towards the dark sky, surrounded by the glow of fireflies.

He would miss these moments. The peace her presence brought him. But he believed he was making the right decision. He hoped she wouldn't be mad at him. At least not mad enough to erase him from her memory entirely. Would she even remember him when she will leave this world? How wrong was it that after what he was about to do, he still selfishly wanted her to love him?

He wanted to visit this place with her under different circumstances because in some way it was a part of him. Even if he didn't know how. It was like sharing a piece of the past. If he forgot, she would still know. He wished they had more time.

He prayed to the gods that Yubaba would not find out it was him. If she discovered the truth, he would probably say goodbye to his life. But it was a fair price for the risk. One life in exchange for another.

— I love you [Reader] — he whispered one last time.

[Reader]. Yeah, right. That was her real name before she came here. The words came to her slowly. She didn't even notice the moment her eyelids grew heavy. Something that was probably a kiss rested on her forehead. She felt a nice warmth. She wanted to say the same thing but she didn't have the strength. She fell asleep.

— [Reader], [Reader], [Reader]! — Yumeka happily jumped around her. — You must see the river.

The woman adjusted her hat, smiling. She offered the little girl her hand. She was pleased with how much good she had done. This was an example of a happy child. The orphanage she had founded was doing well. Unlike the temple where she had grown up, no one forced the little ones to follow one path. She had found people who were willing to support them in choosing a career when the time came.

[Reader] wanted to repay the good fortune she had experienced. The couple who had found her in the woods a few years ago, gave her a home. The doctors had determined that she had suffered from partial amnesia as a young girl. Whenever she tried to explain to them that she had grown up in a temple, they said it was impossible. Her adoptive parents took her there so she could see that it had been abandoned. It was only after several years of work, when she had been awarded the title of a top chef, that she managed to make enough contacts to look at the guarded documents. Some of the people she had grown up with were still alive. When she asked them about her disappearance, they told her that she had simply left one day. Supposedly because they had found parents willing to adopt her. What didn’t add up, however, was how much older she seemed compared to them. She couldn’t explain it but she felt as if there had been a gap in her life. A much longer one than anyone around her suggested.

Over time, she gave up digging into the past. There was little she could do and no one knew the answers to her questions. So she set herself a new goal. She travelled the world. She cooked for many different celebrities but also for ordinary people. She was hailed as a magical cook. Guests claimed she could do magic. According to critics, the dishes she prepared seemed to have a taste of something they had never been able to taste from anyone else. When her parents began to fail, [Reader] returned to her hometown. There, she came up with the idea of opening an orphanage. Only, it was better than the one she knew. Raised as a future miko, she felt no happiness. She wanted the children to choose their own paths in life. After the deaths of their mother and father, she began to visit the building more and more often. The bond that developed between her and the children was something special. They were the only ones who didn't laugh when she told stories that the adults only shook their heads at. That for years she had been dreaming of a distant land. And in it a colourful bathhouse and magical creatures. Above all a terrifying witch. More often, however, a boy with a gentle smile and green eyes. One day, however, he stopped appearing there and did not want to return for anything.

— You’re saying that out of nowhere a river started flowing here? — [Reader] looked curiously at the lazily flowing water.

— Yes. My friend Chihiro said it just showed up here one day. She came here recently with her parents and they were the first to discover this. Then the neighbours came. Everyone was surprised.

She nodded, staring into the clear surface. It seemed familiar for some reason. Like she had seen it before but that couldn't be possible since the stream had appeared only weeks ago.

She took off her sandals and dipped her feet into the cool current. The world seemed to stop for a moment. Silence surrounded her. The scent of cherry blossoms filled her nostrils. She stood under a blooming, spreading tree surrounded by fireflies.

— You're so stupid, Haku! — The girl clenched her fist.

She looked helplessly at the water that was now flooding the entire area. He had fenced her off. He had fenced her off from that world. He had the nerve to carry her right up to the station and disappear while she was sleeping. On the other side. When she woke up, it was already morning. All he had left behind was a letter, which she opened with a trembling hand.

Dear [Reader],

I know you're angry. You have every right to be. I know that what I'm about to do will hurt you deeply but I can't let you spend the rest of your life here and forget who you are like I did. In time, it will start to bother you, just like it did me. You'll start to forget about the people, places and dreams you've had. Knowing that I'm the main reason you don't want to try to escape from here is one of the worst thoughts I've ever had. If I didn't do anything, the guilt would eat me up inside. Knowing you, you're probably wondering if it's possible to wait here and go back to the bathhouse. I'll answer your question. It's impossible. You can't step into the same river twice. You only have one path and it leads home. I love you. That will never change. That's why I'm selfishly asking you for one last favour. Go through the tunnel. Don't look back. Do every single thing you've ever wanted. I hope that one day we'll be able to meet again. Even if it will be just in our dreams.

Forever yours x͕̪̙͓̟ͯ͒́̕x̵̛̯̭̒̆̿͘x̴̡̬͇̼̙͋̀̂̋ͮx̷̬̙̍̉͊́̕x̷̨̫̹͉ͤ͒̔̓͋͞x̶̫ͦ̇̽̎

She thought she saw the kanji forming a signature but it seemed to spill and dance before her eyes. Kohaku? No… The correct one would be…

— Nigihayami Kohakunushi. — The words seemed to escape her lips on their own.

— [Reader], are you okay? You were completely out of it for a moment. — Yumeka waved her hand in front of her eyes. — How did you know what we named the river? You said it was the first time you’d heard of it.

— It's nothing. I got lost in my thoughts. One of the neighbours probably told me and I just remembered. — She cast a last, lingering look at the river. — Let's go for dinner. I was going to wait a bit longer but I actually came to tell you the good news. If everything goes well, I'll be able to start the adoption process soon. What do you think?

— Really?

— Really. — She smiled, grabbed her hand and together they walked away from the shore. Cherry blossoms were still dancing in the air.

#haku x reader #spirited away x reader #sen to chihiro no kamikakushi #chihiro ogino #kamaji #yubaba #nigihayami kohakunushi #angst #bittersweet

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