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Wukong spent his days wandering about. He was not always free, as he had a student to mentor and a mountain to watch over, but when duties did not call for his name, he spent his time lazing about in his nimbus cloud munching on peach chips or spending time with his subjects.
It was another one of those afternoons, MK had dropped by to do his training in the morning, something about doing an important delivery in the afternoon so he made it up during the hours where the sun was still rising.
Sun Wukong had no major complaints, aside from the fact the kid made him get up at the crack ass of dawn, he was glad the kid was devoted to training and made a reminder to him to catch a break if he could.
His cloud moved about leisurely a few feet above the swaying grass of the mountain, his subjects occasionally made noises of greetings up to their king who greeted them back, before going off to their own businesses.
Wukong’s cloud drifted off near the edge of where the forest began, Sun Wukong made a thought to float them somewhere else when he heard a curious rustle of the tree branches.
Looking up, he saw a hint of cool colour that was not natural to the forest atmosphere. Floating up higher to observe what it was, a baby monkey’s face comes to view.
“Oh, hey there!” Wukong greets the little thing, who squeaks happily at the sight of the sage. Sun Wukong drifted closer to the branch, allowing the little monkey to join his liege on the nimbus.
Now that he was much closer, it didn’t take a second to recognize just what the baby monkey was holding.
“What do you have there?” Wukong asks, a curious glint in his golden eyes as he kneeled down to the baby monkey that held a gorgeous collection of white carnations.
“Flowers..?” Handed the bouquet that was addressed to the king, Wukong stared in disbelief as he read the little card that had his name signed as the receiver.
‘There's no sender.’
Little did the Monkey King know, the bouquet of white carnations will be the first of many flowers that will greet his home.
Sun Wukong found it extremely curious at first of the person, demon, or anyone who could penetrate his barrier to.. deliver a bouquet of flowers for seemingly no reason.
Or perhaps there was a reason, but Wukong himself could not possibly piece them together even if he snuck into the city where he walked into the nearest bookstore to purchase a guide about flowers.
All Sun Wukong knew was that these flowers were awfully romantic-centric.
Most of the time, that is.
But with the worry that he wasn’t being sent a message that the world was gonna end in three days, he let his curiosity overtake him as he began investigating the curious case of the sender of these flower bouquets.
After the white carnations had made its home in his cosy little hut, the day after he was given a generous collection of asters. Then another day with a different batch of flowers, then another, and another.
It didn’t take long before Wukong snuck off to the city to buy that guide. Aside from the book, Wukong observed that the sender absolutely has not missed a day on sending him them, and so Wukong kept careful watch of the mountain, determined to catch the sender on the act of delivering such beautiful plants.
Only, for his efforts to go down the drain.
His sender was clever , the whole mountain was huge, and so they sent flowers at random places at random times of the peaceful land. Should Wukong not find the nicely put together gift himself, it was either one of his subjects that would find it for him.
It was like a game, and Wukong was caught on it like a mouse.
It has gone to the point Wukong went a little crazy on trying to find them, he scouted the whole mountain with daylight glaring down his back, only for him to wake up in the middle of the night with a bouquet of pink hyacinths sitting pretty at the foot of his bed.
Oh, he was more than freaked out at the time, but somewhat calmed down enough when he snatched the book of flowers to find that the pink hyacinths had meant playfulness .
Doesn’t mean Wukong was appreciative of the flower jumpscare at 2:35 in the morning though. (It never happened again.)
At the knowledge that his somewhat stalkerish sender knew that Wukong was trying to find him, Wukong decided to somewhat give up on the investigation as he pretty much attempted every trick in the book to try and find his silly.. admirer, if that's what you’d call it.
Knowing that the gifter did not desire to reveal their identity, Wukong as stated somewhat gave up. He respects a person who has no desire to be found, seeing that he was quite the same person as well.
So for everyday, an assortment or one specific species of flowers greets him everyday to no failure.
Now that he began to accept that he cannot find the person who generously gives him flowers, he turned his attention to something else.
Flowers certainly do not live forever.
Flowers are like a grain of sand compared to the Monkey King’s immortality, so when Wukong began to notice the white carnations began to wilt, it didn’t take long for him to begin a hobby of pressing them down.
Normally, Wukong would have left these to die out. He simply couldn't care less of little plants that had a short time of life where they lived their peak as a beautiful flower before wilting away till the cycle repeats.
Yet, no. Sun Wukong found himself caring.
He found himself reading on the awfully large guide about flowers, reading on the section on how to continue caring for them, replanting them back to the soil where they thrived on the mountain’s bountiful nutrients.
This new hobby of his did not go past his student. MK didn’t even need to be told, simply picking up from how obvious the change was to the clearing near the hut and how Wukong seemed to take extra care to not have training near the growing garden of flowers.
The student held his urge to find out back enough, focused on sparring with the sage, until he landed near a tree where he narrowly dodged a kick from his teacher.
Something in Sun Wukong’s expression had changed, as swift as the wind MK was held up by Sun Wukong’s orange tail. MK took a second to recover from the movement comparable to lightning, his eyes drifting down to the sage carefully cradling red tulips .
MK, who stewed his own curiosity for a couple of days long enough, broke and asked Sun Wukong outrightly on where all the flowers came from.
To which, Wukong answered with flushed cheeks and narrow eyes.
“I don’t know kid, I don’t know.”
“Man, I didn’t know flowers needed this much work.” MK comments, the sun’s rays beating down his back, sweat dripping down his cheeks. A few days after Wukong had told him about the sudden appearance of these flowers all gifted to him everyday without fail, to him trying to find his sender, and to just giving up overall. MK offered to help the sage with caring for them, to which the king was hesitant but allowed his little buddy to spend time with him.
“I know, but it is worth it.” Sun Wukong states, a lilt smile to his face as he grazes his fingers on the gentle petals of light red carnations. He received these a week prior, as he practically memorised the book from the beginning to its end, Wukong grew familiar with the meanings.
Today, he received a mixed bouquet of pink camellias and amaryllises.
His cheeks flush red, grateful for the heat of the sun as an excuse for his flustered expression when he thought of what amaryllises meant. Quietly clearing his throat, he brings his attention to the pink camellias.
‘They generally mean love, affection and adoration.’ Sun Wukong looks down at the pink camellias that now are at home with the mountain’s rich soil. ‘But they mean longing as well with this specific colour.’
Every flower sent to him always threw him off whenever he remembers the meanings, something in his chest flutters like a butterfly’s featherlight wings that visited his home to feed on the nectar the flowers provide.
There was no doubt the person who sent all these at least held.. some sort of attraction to him, and Wukong doesn’t know whether or not he wants them to know the effect these gifted flowers have on him.
Either way, the arrival of the assortment of flowers has certainly made flower fruit mountain live up to its name.
Both mentor and student continued to work on the plants, Wukong carefully guiding MK throughout the process. In return, the kid talked the ancient monkey’s ear off. Not that Wukong minded, he enjoyed MK’s chatter, it was nice to have someone so talkative to flow out their conversation.
“-Oh! Speaking of flowers, Sandy recently checked out this flower shop that opened. I don't know how many days ago but it's been there for a few months at least? He checked them out and you would NEVER believe who works there!”
Something about this part of MK’s ramble had Wukong’s stomach feeling.. funny. He usually trusted his gut, but even his gut didn’t know what to tell the king himself.
MK notices he’s got Wukong’s careful attention, then happily jumps to answer his own cliff hanger.
“Macaque! Macaque, works there! Who would have guessed to be honest? That guy and a flower shop doesn’t really go together but from what Sandy tells me he just works there to-“
At this point of MK’s ramble, Sun Wukong had tuned him out like a white noise.
He fell deaf to the world around him as shock befalls upon his shoulders, wide eyes looking at the rest of the thriving garden of flowers.
All of them.
Gods, how could he not have known?
The way of the flower delivery, how it seems to always arrive at his mountain when FFM was surrounded by disasters.
Then their game of finding, how Wukong never truly found them because Macaque always had the advantage of hiding within the shadows.
He gulped, stone heart beating out of his chest.
Kneeling next to the pink camellias as he gazed around the spread out flowers that bloomed so beautifully under the sun.
These..
were all from him.