#sprinkled in and hopefully not overpowering and still being MK's 'doing his best' teacher

[deltaclaws]

Reassurance, Resaaurance: LEGO Monkie Kid Fanfic

It's been a good while! Here's my first fic in what I hope will be many for Monkie Kid. You can read it on AO3 as well.

Usually, when they sat at the ledge overlooking the valley with a clear view to the city, it was their chill out time. Enjoying the evening in silence, sharing stories, MK showing off his latest art, or splitting an order from Pigsy’s. It was fun, it was peaceful.

It was the total opposite of the mood right now.

The kid had asked Monkey King after their training session ended if they could sit down and talk. ‘Isn’t that what we already do?’ he had joked. MK didn’t chuckle, or even huff dramatically. He looked somewhere over the king’s shoulder and asked if they could ‘really talk’. When he saw Monkey King’s slightly bewildered expression, the kid clarified he needed some advice.

  Wukong would be happy to give advice on just about anything to MK. He was THE Great Sage, and had been around longer than most current civilizations. He had loads of wisdom! Whether someone wanted to hear it or not was a different question.

  At his affirmation, MK nodded- not with his usual fervor, Wukong noted- and walked over to their dedicated spots near the edge of the temple’s grounds. A few things were clicking into place now, as he watched his student move like he was plowing through snow and not across a dusty courtyard. Had MK not asked first, Wukong would’ve prodded him about his lack of pep.

  Monkey King sauntered over and flopped down next to the kid, easing back on his hands. “So, what’s eatin’ ya bud?” he asked casually.

  Staring out over the valley, MK talked about how he’d been feeling bad lately. ‘Bad in like, a mood way’ he elaborated, with some vague gesturing. Something heavy sat in his chest, and none of his usual fun hobbies seemed to take away the weight completely, not even training. MK had already talked with all of his friends about it; their encouraging words and advice would lift his spirits up for a while, but now nothing seemed to make it better.

  It was then he finally faced Monkey King, with that distressed look he’d seen too much of during… has it been three months since Lady Bone Demon’s defeat already? Yeesh.

  “What do you do, Monkey King? When nothing feels… like it used to?”

  That wasn't the question he was expecting. ‘What do you do when you’re sad?’, or ‘Can you tell me another story where you overcame impossible odds?’, even ‘Can we watch the Monkey King animated series together?’ ranked a little higher on the mental list of stuff MK could’ve asked him.

  Monkey King had spent enough time around the kid to tell there was something else to that question he was either afraid to ask, or afraid to hear the answer to. What made it harder was that Wukong didn’t have a solid answer, like at all- at least one that the kid wanted to hear. He couldn’t pull the ‘smidge of confidence’ speech out for this one.

  The kid needed insight, comfort- he needed his mentor.

  Monkey King floundered, his hand instinctively going to the back of his head to mess with his fur, spitting out some ‘ahh, well! hmm’s, while he scrambled for something to say. He really should be better at this by now.

  “That's a… good question! I personallyyy…” he stammered, gazing up at the sky like the Celestial Realm was gonna drop some hot wisdom right in his hands and save him from the increasingly awkward conversation they were having. That moment would’ve been a good one for some hero business to come up and put this entire thing on hold.

  He took too long, it seemed, because then the kid was standing up and brushing off his pants, mumbling something like ‘it’s fine, I’ll see you tomorrow’ and began to walk away.

  That helped Wukong make up his mind. Snapping back to reality he called out to MK before the kid bounded back to his delivery cart and drove off. MK glanced over his shoulder, looking more distressed than he was before. Monkey King resigned himself to the awkwardness and sighed, gesturing for his student to come back and sit.

  When he did, Monkey King held out his hand in a silent offer. To his relief, MK scooted over and let his teacher drape his arm across his shoulders in their usual side-hug.

  Which led them here. 

  MK sat with his legs pulled away from the edge, tucked up under his chin with his arms resting on top. His gaze was distant; aimed at the city miles away but not really taking it in. Monkey King could feel how stiff the kid’s shoulders were, not moving an inch since he sat back down. As the sun set over the horizon, a warm breeze kicked up and washed over them.

  “So, elaborate for me,” Monkey King started, “What do you mean by ‘nothing feeling like it used to?’” he asked, looking out of the corner of his eye to watch MK’s face.

  There was a beat, before the kid took in a deep breath and let it out. “I mean… everything’s gone back to normal, but it doesn’t feel normal,” he said softly. MK raised his head up, ready to add something else, before a look of concern flitted across his face. It disappeared faster than the breeze soothing them, and the kid tucked himself back into his arms. ‘Interesting’, Monkey King thought. “There isn’t anything missing. I checked,” he mumbled into his sleeves. “The city’s perfect… well, as perfect as it is after we trash it.” The king let out a snort at that, even though MK seemed unmoved by his own joke.

  Taking the silence that followed after as his cue, Monkey King spoke up. “Well, it sounds to me like there’s nothing wrong,” he paused, and maybe he did it for a little bit of dramatic effect. “Except with you, bud.” he turned to MK then to gauge his reaction, and realized belatedly that maybe that wasn’t the right way to make his student spill the beans.

  MK’s face was tense, verging on that frustrated look he’d also seen many times, and felt his shoulders hitch up. Before Monkey King could take his foot out of his mouth, his student cut in. “When is there not something wrong with me?”

  Backpedal, backpedal!

  “Whoa, whoa, kid, that’s not what I meant!” Monkey King asserted, waving his hands placatingly. “I meant that it sounds like you- that you’re not- if everything’s fine- ugh.” he threw away whatever argument he was going to make and slapped his palms over his face. Maybe if he pressed hard enough he would be able to stop his other foot from ending up in his big mouth.

  The awkward silence returned, along with the wind, as if it was trying to blow away the sour air between the two and take it along with the evening. As good an attempt as it was, the breeze made the gap between them feel even bigger- no thanks to him. Again.

  Monkey King breathed in a lungful of the offering, dragged his hands across his face, and took in his surroundings. The steady wash of the wind, the smell of the still-warm earth beneath them, the distant calls of the nighttime life waking up, the stars blinking in one by one, and his successor- looking like he wanted to turn into the world’s most loudly-dressed rock. Wukong steadied himself and went in for attempt #3.

  “Kid,” he spoke softly, resting his elbows on his legs. MK made no indication he heard him, his eyes closed and brows pulled taught over them. Monkey King forged on. “Kid, if everything's fine then there’s something else bugging you. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s really wrong.” he finished, ignoring the nasty little voice that oh-so helpfully supplied that he’d hardly helped the kid over the past year.

  Monkey King hoped that was the right thing to say to get his student talking. He may not be the world’s best mentor, but he could read body language. MK was holding out.

  He leaned back again and waited. Another stretch of silence, another warm breeze. If he had Macaque’s hearing he’s pretty sure he could pick up the little gears turning in the kid’s head.

  Finally, after however-long, MK cracked open his eyes and glanced at Monkey King. Putting on his best ‘you can trust me’ smile, Wukong nodded. The kid kept looking at him, gauging… something, maybe his sincerity? Before he turned his focus back out to the valley sprawling below them. He took a deep breath and said, with a voice that didn’t match his age, “What if she comes back?”

  ‘And there it is,’ Monkey King thought to himself. It sounded kinda familiar though, and he wracked his brain for-

  ‘What if the Spider Queen comes back?!’

  MK had said that, as Monkey King was packing, for his vacation. And he had waved him off with a ‘You can figure it out!’, or something like that.

  He had crawled out of one hole he had dug for himself and dropped head-first right into another. His actions were coming back and biting him on the tail, nice and hard. Which wasn’t new, but he was trying harder to be the teacher MK deserved. So, he deserved- needed, to have proper reassurance this time. Whatever it took.

  Monkey King hummed thoughtfully. “If this is the ‘she’ we’re both thinking about, I’m pretty sure she’s been turned into cosmic dust by now. You saw her off yourself, remember?” he responded. When MK didn’t speak again, he continued. “Is that what you meant by things not feeling the same?”

  MK nodded stiffly, halted by his arms under his chin. “I…” he huffed through his nose, “it’s been tough going back to the old routine. Letting things go back to normal. It was fine, at first, but now I can’t do anything without thinking about how it might be taken away again… and everyone else seems ok!” he added, frustration lacing his words. ”Feels like I’m the only one worrying about… all this.” MK turned his head towards him, really looking at him for the first time since he sat back down, and Monkey King’s heart started to melt, just a little bit, from the look on the kid’s face- eyes full of desperation, like he was holding onto a solitary thread that was close to snapping. That too, was an unfortunately familiar sight.

  “You’ve felt like this before, right?” he asked. “When you first faced her, and when she got sealed away. Did you ever worry she would come back?”

  Monkey King glanced down, before looking up at the sky and mulling over the kid’s words. ‘Nothing feeling the same, worrying about old enemies coming back,’ he churned in his head. Well, hopefully his honesty would lead him down the right path.

  “I did.” he answered truthfully, noting triumphantly that MK had picked his head up, the tiniest bit, out of the corner of his eye. “I mean, you stick around as long as I have and get this strong, lots of people are gonna want you out of the picture for one reason or another. Or they just want to see you suffer because they don’t have hobbies.” he said with a lopsided smile, but the kid didn’t laugh. Darn.

  “My master saw something in her that none of us did, and gave her a second chance. Put her in a big ol’ time-out box to chill for a couple centuries, or however long it took for her to come down from her crazy high-horse. I thought it was a bad idea from the start. I told Tripitaka that much,” Monkey King recalled, though he may have used a few extra creative words towards his master to drive the point home.

   “Lady Bone Demon had manipulated and taken so many lives by that point, just to reach her goal of ending pain- by making everyone suffer. Took that ‘ends justifies the means’ to an insane level. She didn’t deserve a second chance.” he snarled.

  Wukong took in a deep breath and dispelled the dark memories that threatened to obscure his mind. “Buuuut she got one.” he breathed out. “We all helped in laying her coffin down, but I made sure that thing was buried deep in the earth. I didn’t want to see her bony face ever again.” Monkey King said, taking in the city heights out on the horizon. Not too long ago it had been a standing grave.

  “Even with her sealed away, and the key to her tomb tossed to the other side of China, I worried she would come back,” he admitted to MK. Wukong turned to his student then, checking his mood. The kid seemed a smidge less stressed now, and he was hanging onto every word. Good, good. He could keep this rolling.

  “And then she did. Found an unlucky kid and turned her into a pawn, just like every mortal before her. Who knows how long she had her before she showed up at the New Years’ celebration.” he uttered. He didn’t add on the visions Lady Bone Demon showed him then, trying to throw him off his game. He despised how well that stupid trick worked on both him and MK.

  Monkey King smiled, a genuine one this time. “The difference between then and now, however,” he spoke, giving a playful tap of his fist on MK’s shoulder. “Was that I have a super awesome, super smart, incredibly dedicated successor by my side.”

  MK didn’t smile yet, but he could see his eyes soften. If they looked a little glossy, he wouldn’t say. Must’ve been the wind tossing dirt in MK’s eyes. Crafty wind.

  He continued on. “And, that successor was sooo powerful and awesome, he managed to bring everyone together and send Lady Bone Demon packin’. Dunno if I would’ve been able to do the same, bud. Haven’t exactly been a people monkey for a few hundred years.” Wukong said with a light chuckle. He could see a ghost of a smile warble on MK’s mouth.

  Monkey King rested on his palms, tail gently swaying. “So yeah. I did worry about her coming back. It happened, but we fixed it together. Even with my nnnnot so great plan” he emphasized with wiggling his hand side-to-side “getting in the way. And draining our powers. And Macaque.” his nose wrinkled at the thought. “Add that to the list of ‘Things that make Macaque a problematic fave’.”

  That managed to get MK to huff out a laugh, even if it was weak. Monkey King’s grin only got bigger. “As for things not feeling the same…” he shrugged. “It’ll be like that for a while. The feeling doesn’t stay forever, and you shouldn’t let it spoil what you fought so hard to protect. Honestly kid,” he sighed, levelling a feigned disappointed look at his student. “We do all that hard work, save the entire world, and you spend your time whining about things not being exactly the same as before? Pretty selfish of you if you ask me. Which you didn’t, but I’m telling you anyway.” he said sarcastically, with a wink added on for flavor.

  MK snorted. “You’re one to talk.” he mumbled.

  Faster than MK could register, Monkey King was standing up with an overly dramatic gasp. “ExCUSE me?!” he cried out, leaning slightly over MK with his hands-on-hips pose, one eyebrow raised so far up it threatened to disappear into his fur. “Was that sass? From my successor?!”

  He watched MK’s face reel from bemused to absurdly panicked in record-setting time. Before he could stammer out an apology, MK was swept up into his mentor’s arms, letting out a startled ‘hweek!’

  “I take time out of my very busy schedule,” Monkey King scolded, spinning himself and MK away from the ledge. “To teach you how to use all of my super awesome powers. I impart my ancient wisdom onto you, free of charge,” he continued, trapping his student’s arms under one of his, throwing his head back to lament to the heavens “Even train you at Flower Fruit Mountain! Just so you can have the genuine Monkey King experience,” he looked down at MK with a steely glare, though he couldn’t quite hide his smile.

  “And you call ME selfish?!” he hollered, giving the top of MK’s head the noogie of a lifetime. The bright laughter that bubbled out of his kid was infectious, and Monkey King didn’t stop his own from joining in. Their combined joy echoed through the courtyard, the Temple returning it tenfold, like it too was happy to see them carefree again.

  “Ok, OK!” MK pleaded, doing his best to make a ‘time out’ gesture with his very trapped hands. “I’m super duper sorry, Monkey King! I’ll never sass you again! Pr’mise!” he squeaked out, trying his best to shrug away from his mentor’s iron knuckles, which only gave him the result of his face squished into his hands. “I don’ wan’ anoth’r bald spo’ on m’ hed!” 

  Monkey King finally relented, and MK was halfway sure he was going to see the top of his head smoking from the sheer friction of his mentor’s demonic noogies against his noggin. He’s pretty sure that Monkey King wore a notch in there too. “Well, I guess I can let you go if you’ve learned your lesson.” he said dismissively. He freed MK from his inescapable grasp and set him back on his feet.

  MK puffed out a sigh, and fixed his headband and hair as best as he could. He turned to Monkey King, his bright smile returning, and saw it reflected on his mentor’s face too. “How ya feelin’ now, bud?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

  “Better,” he replied, relief shining through. “Not at a 100% yet, but I’ll get back there eventually.” MK admitted, rubbing the back of his neck.

  His mentor nodded, clasping a warm hand on his shoulder. “You will. You’re stubborn like that.” he jabbed, lifting up one shoulder in a half-shrug. “Just like me.” his features softened, letting himself relax for the first time during this much-needed talking session. “I don’t say it enough, but I’m proud of ya, kiddo. You’ve managed to learn a whole lot in almost a year. I don’t think anybody else except yours truly could’ve done that.”

  That glossiness returned to his eyes, and before Wukong could comment on it he found himself with an armful of MK. “Thanks,” he muttered into his shoulder, voice sounding suspiciously ragged as he hugged Monkey King fiercely. “For everything.”

  ‘I should be thanking you, bud’ is what Monkey King wanted to say, because the kid had taught him a whole lot too; helped him relearn things he’d forgotten in his years away from the outside world. He wouldn’t admit that to anyone else. He returned the hug with the same fierce energy and said “You too, MK.” instead, resting his cheek on the side of his kid’s head.

  Yeah, things were getting better.

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