Chapter Text
Everything was fine! The sun was shining above Flower Fruit Mountain, LBD was finally defeated, his relationship with the Monkey King was improving, and now they were going on a mentor-student camping trip for a few days to train on the 72 transformations! What more could he ask for? It was all perfect! Well...it would be... if he was not nervous about the fact that he invited a certain someone to try and help both them and the Monkey King get along. Something that he was planning behind his mentor’s back. MK felt kinda bad about it. When Monkey King told him about this trip, he could see how excited he was. Heck, even his tail was wagging while waiting on his reaction. And while the King labeled it a “training trip.” it was clear he wanted a few lazy days, which he would have agreed to either way. It's only been 2 weeks since the epic battle against LBD, and things have still been a bit on…edge...
But this was the perfect opportunity for his plan! Neither of them could leave cause one, Monkey King had planned the trip, and as for two, well, let’s just say MK could be pretty convincing when he wanted to. Besides, there is no turning back now. He’s already at the meeting spot waiting on the King, who was a bit late, both of them. At least that gives him time to think about how to tell him-
“Hey, kid!” his thoughts were cut short when he got startled by a hand on his shoulder. He hadn't expected it, so he got scared for a second. Wukong couldn't help but chuckle at his successor’s reaction.
“Easy there, bud, it’s just me, the old, great sage equal to heaven!” Said the King while puffing his chest and putting his hand on his waist in hopes of getting the kid to laugh at his silly pose, which worked. Though he was still panting from the scare, man, did he scare him that much? “Wow, kid, am I that ugly?” he gave a bit of a forced smile as he was also starting to get kinda worried.
“What? Nonono! Sorry, I just, got lost in thought too much and didn’t notice you were here.” MK tried to explain while rubbing the back of his neck. He saw that forced smile Wukong gave. He didn’t want to worry his mentor for something as silly as this.
Wukong left a sigh. “Good. You really need to work on being aware of your surroundings, bud. Next time it might not be me sneaking from behind."
“Yeah, sorry…”
"Hey, don't worry too much about it!" Said the Monkey King, proceeding on patting his student's head with a big grin. "Just making sure you learn from this."
MK giggled, he always enjoys those head pats, even if he never says it out loud.
"And sorry for the wait, couldn't find my sleeping bag." The golden monkey exclaimed, showing off the sleeping bag hanging from his shoulder. And now that MK took a better look at his mentor, he noticed that he was wearing the outfit he wore during their search for the Samadhi fire. He wondered why he ended up wearing that but decided not to ask. "Alright! Now that we are all set let's-"
"WAIT!" MK yelled, earning a confused look from the Monkey King.
"Um...Everything ok, bud...?" The golden monkey asked while raising an eyebrow. Why was the kid acting strange all of a sudden?
"Yeah, totally!" that was a lie, he still had no idea how to tell the King about them being a party of three for those couple of days, not to mention who that 3rd party member was going to be. "So, here's the thing... I might have invited one more person to...join us...?" He gave a shaky smile, waiting on his mentor's reaction.
Wukong stared for a while, trying to process what MK told him. "...Oh..." That is all he managed to get out of his mouth. Sure, why not? It's not like he was hoping for quality time with his the kid. Besides, the more, the merrier!...right...? "Cool!" He gave a big, not-so-real, grin.
MK looked at him with a surprised look. He short of expected the first part of his reaction, but the fact that he was cool about the last-minute invitation caught him off guard. Didn't know what he was expecting, but it sure wasn't this. "Cool? So... you're ok with this? You're not mad...?"
"Of course not, bud! Why would I be?" Well, it's not a lie... he really wasn't. Just not thrilled either. "So, who did you invite? Is it the dragon pony girl?"
"No..." Is all MK said. Ok, so not the girl.
"Then your boss, Pigsy?"
MK shook his head
"Red Son?"
"Nope..." he was starting to sweat. For the love of... Just tell the monkey!
"Alright, kid, are you gonna tell me, or are we gonna play twenty questions?" he asked while crossing his arms. The kid was clearly hiding something.
MK tightens his fist. It's now or never. "Well, it's-"
"Sup, kiddo! Sorry I'm late."
Monkey King froze. He knows that voice. Too well in fact. But why was he- Oh...Oh god no... Oh please no-
"Macaque! You made it!" MK said happily. He got excited, ready to go to the other monkey until he saw the look on Wukong's face. Yeah, he was so dead.
Macaque started heading towards MK. "Of course! Wouldn't miss it for the world. Oh, hey Wukong, didn't see you there." He said while waving his tail in Monkey King's face.
The King tried really hard to hide his annoyed face but in vain. Macaque? Out of everyone the kid could have brought along. He chose MACAQUE?!? "And you are here because...?" Wukong grumbled. He knew why but just wanted to know... Why...? .
"For the camping trip, of course! The kid was very insistent, weren't you bud?" Macaque explained while throwing his arm around MK's shoulder. To that, MK only managed to give a nervous laugh. So far, things were not going well. "Why are you asking?" A short pause followed. "Wait... You didn't know I was coming, did you?" The Monkey King groaned to that. "Well~ Looks like the kid forgot to mention my arrival to his, oh-so-great mentor, huh?" A mocking grin was painted all over the black monkey's face while Wukong gave him death glares. God knows how he wanted to wipe that smile off his face. If it weren't for MK, he probably would have.
"Ok, ok, let us not start anything, please? Since we are all here, we can just make our way to the campsite!" Said MK, trying to lighten the mood as much as he could.
The two celestial monkeys stared daggers at each other for a while until Monkey King looked at MK while giving another fake grin. "Sure thing bud! But first, can I talk to you for a minute?" He points behind his back. "Alone?"
MK gulped, this was not gonna end well. He walked toward Monkey King while Wukong proceeded to rest his arm around the kid's shoulder, and the two started walking a bit farther from the other monkey. MK turned his head around to see Macaque waving at him with a smile. He tried to return that smile as much as he could but was a bit afraid of the scolding he was gonna get from his mentor.
"Look, kid." MK turned to look at his mentor. His expression was not angry as he thought it would be, but concerned? Nervous maybe? Sometimes it is hard to tell. "I think you know I wouldn't have a problem with this if it were anyone else, right?" The kid nodded. "So, is there a reason you wanted to invite him in particular?" Monkey King asked with a hiss at the end. MK didn't want to tell his mentor that he was trying to play peacemaker with the two monkeys, but he couldn't lie either.
"Well... you see... since Macaque is a good guy now...kinda... I thought that he should start hanging out with everyone! And since you two used to be friends, I figured we could start from there...? hehe..." He gave a nervous laugh hoping that the Monkey King bought it. He was not exactly lying, he was still planning to one day invite Macaque to hang out with everyone. One step at a time tho.
Wukong gave a long sigh. "Fine, just this once." MK's eyes shone with excitement. Seriously, how could anyone say no to that kid? Wait, that would explain how Macaque got dragged into this mess, if not only to annoy the King with his presence alone. He turned to look at the dark monkey, who still wore that stupid grin. Yep, those couple of days were gonna be...something. Just do it for the kid, he thought. The only reason he even agreed to do this.
"Alright, wannabe me." To that, Macaque raised an eyebrow. "I hope you brought your own tent cause we are not sharing." He said while pointing at himself and MK.
"No need, MK offered to bring me the extra sleeping bag he had. Besides..." Macaque vanished inside his shadow only to appear behind the King, who got shivers from how close he got. "I prefer to sleep outside on good days."
Monkey King just groaned and asked MK for the map to the campsite. He may be the ruler of Flower Fruit Mountain, but even he gets lost sometimes, especially when he goes on foot.
Everything ended up way better than MK anticipated! A few days together will surely help the two celestial monkeys get along. Now he just had to let things take their course and enjoy the time he would spend with Macaque and the Monkey King! Yes, this trip was going to be amazing!