A Son Of Two Dad's

Progress

They took a break after that, Red Son leaving the group to inform his parents about the situation and what he was doing while MK sat in the main room with his friends/ family, all eating sandwiches the Bull clones had made up. 

It surprised MK how good chefs the robots were, actually. 

"So, MK, got any leads yet?" Mei asked curiously in-between bites of her sandwich and MK nodded. 

"Yep! There's a way that most demons can locate their parents if they have a strong enough link with them or something. We're trying to do that." He explained, not able to go into too much detail because he didn't know too much about it himself. 

Tang nodded at the information. 

"Yes, I've read about that. It seemed very useful. Only Demons with strong birthright power can do such a thing." He explained, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with his index finger looking entirely smug with himself as MK gawked at him, pointing a finger at the scholar. 

"What!? Why didn't you mention this earlier?" He cried out rather loudly and Tang shrugged, uncaring at MK's spluttering. 

"I forgot." He said simply and MK groaned, faceplanting into his hand, noticing out the corner of his eye that Sandy was looking away suspiciously. 

"Did anyone else know this?" He asked accusingly and somehow both was and wasn't surprised when Sandy looked even more uncomfortable. 

"Okay, to be fair, I've only heard of it. I never used it and it's been a long time since someone's mentioned it. You can't blame me for forgettin'." It was Pigsy, surprisingly, that spoke and MK's face pulled into an even tighter frown, just now realizing that maybe he should have asked more questions before going straight to Red Son.  

"Wait, how come I've never heard of this?" Mei cried out, crossing her arms and looking very upset to be in the dark. Then she realized that she'd never really been close enough with her parents growing up to learn about stuff like that and pouted even harder, somehow feeling robbed. 

"Well, I guess it was a good thing we came here anyway since none of us know how to do it!" Sandy encouraged optimistically, trying to make light of the way things happened but MK only felt sour. 

This would have been so useful to know earlier. 

Why was it that adults never communicated properly with him? It was frustrating! 

He finished off his sandwich and stood up, angsty to get back to finding his parents, sure that every second longer he took was a second more they were in danger.

"Okay, I'm gonna go find Red Son. I'll be back soon!" He called out to the room, quickly scampering away and wandering back to the room he'd been in before, poking his head in and looking around. 

"Red Son?" He called out into the filled room. 

"Are you there?" There was no response and MK concluded firmly that he wasn't.

He backed out, looking around the empty hallway nervously and wondering if it was okay to go look for him. It wasn't his house but... well, he didn't want to go back to the others' and he really needed this done now so- He could practice on his own?

As soon as the thought came to mind MK decided it was a good idea, closing his eyes and trying to replicate the feeling Red Son had shown him, searching for his own magic. It was harder than it felt like it should have been. The bits of gold entangled with purple in weaves of knots MK couldn't find the end to. 

Red Son's tether had been singular, the same one even though they were leading to different places, so why was MK's so messy? He sighed, squeezing his eyes shut further and trying again. Even his own magic felt impossible to find, unsure how it felt or what it looked like. 

How was he supposed to know what was his? He hadn't had it long enough to be familiar with it which was silly because it was his. 

"...What are you doing?" MK's eyes snapped open at Red Son's voice, his face flushing hotly in embarrassment.

"Um... just... you know... trying to..." He trailed off, feeling silly and Red Son smiled, actually smiled to himself. It wasn't manic like it usually was and MK found himself staring at it longer than he should have, strangely stunned. 

"Come on, let's go in and I'll help you." He offered, walking inside the room while MK followed dumbly, stuck for words in the face of Red Son's amusement. 

They sat down, Red Son taking MK's wrist in his arm just like before, sitting so their knees were almost touching.

"Okay, let's try again." After a few minutes of nothing happening, of not getting any close MK opened his eyes, frustration clear on his features. 

"Ugh! I'm never going to get it!" He whined out, feeling utterly useless. Why was it that he couldn't do something so simple? He could telepathically communicate with Monkey King, why couldn't he find him? It didn't occur to MK that it had taken him much longer and a lot more tries to learn how to do that, too. 

"You are!" Red Son encouraged. 

"You can totally do this!" The passion and surety in his voice didn't make MK feel any better, sinking down. 

"Not fast enough." He whispered out, hugging himself. 

"It's- I don't have the time to be useless MK who takes forever to do anything!" He really shouldn't be being this honest in front of someone he barely knew, someone that hated him even, but he was tired and beside himself with worry. 

He needed to be there for his dads. 

"You're not useless!" Red Son yelled out, sounding offended by the very idea and MK looked up at him, a small bit of curiosity and awe in his eyes at the rare compliment.

"Anyone who can defeat me, Red Son, is not useless!" He was striking a pose, standing with one foot on his chair with such absolution in his voice that it left MK shocked. 

He smiled, a small thing that quickly grew. 

"Thanks, Red Son." That had been exactly what he needed to hear. 

"Now are you ready to try again?" The demon bellowed, siked up with all the energy around him that MK immediately squashed by not passionately agreeing. 

"Actually, remember when you said someone could grab someone else's tether if they knew how?" Red Son didn't answer the rhetorical question but he knew where this was going. 

"Maybe you could-" Red Son sliced his arms in a 'no' motion shaking his head. 

"Absolutely not! It's not right to do it and I bearly know you-" 

"Please?" MK begged, pouting with wide, doe-like eyes that Red Son stared at impassively for about two seconds before huffing. 

"Fine! Fine! If that's what you want! But you asked for this so it's not my fault if you get uncomfortable."

(Gah I've been so busy! My art deadline was today and for the past week, I've done nothing but art, hence why this is late. The good news is that I'm done now! I'm going to write another chapter in the morning so you guys won't have to wait long for the next one. Hope you're all doing well and see you guys tomorrow!)