Part 2 of the Monkey King oneshot. I would've came up with a different title, but it felt best to just keep it the same since it's a continuation of the previous chapter.
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A gasp escaped me as I sat up, a cold sweat covering my body. I looked around at my surroundings. Almost complete darkness surrounded me, the only source of light in the room coming from outside behind the curtains that covered my windows. I slowly caught my breath as I place on where I remember being wounded. Yet there is no injury there. I slip out of bed and hesitantly walk over to the curtains. Slowly pushing them back I find the sun beaming down into my room. My body starts to shake as my legs become noodles causing gravity to bring me to the ground, my vision blurring with tears. A mix of emotions coursing through my body as I come to the realization that I'm back in my world.
I sat there on the floor sobbing until no more tears would fall. Yet I don't move from my spot. Not until I hear the sound of my phone ringing. I stumble and slightly sway as I lift my body up despite wanting to stay in place. I make my way over to my bedside and pick up my phone, taking it off charge before answering it. "Finally! I've been trying to call you for hours! Did you oversleep again? Seriously you need to stop pulling all nighters binging all of those shows." I recognize the voice as my best friend. I honestly don't remember that the two of us had made plans, but to be fair it's been months since I last spoke with her. "I-I'm sorry. I-" I didn't care that I sounded like shit, I just wanted to be back with Wukong and see him smile one last time. "Are you okay? Did something happen? Is that why you didn't answer? Do I need to cancel our plans and come over?" So much worry and concern filled her voice. "Please, I don't want to be alone right now." I managed to choke out. As much as I didn't want her to see me like this I don't know if I can handle being alone right now. "Alright! I'll be over in fifteen minutes! Bye girly!" She hung up after I said bye to her.
A couple of months went by after that. I told her about everything that happened, but told her it was all a dream to not come off as crazy. Not surprisingly she didn't believe it was just a dream with how torn up I sounded. Yet she didn't treat me like I was crazy over it all, which honestly made me feel a bit better. She promised that we'd make a trip to China to visit some temples of the Monkey King when we both could afford to go. It surprised me with how quickly we were able to save up money to go for two weeks. I know I won't actually get to see Wukong, not ever again, but I'll at least get some form of closure. At least that's what I believe. I know I'll miss him and everyone in the fictional world, but at least I could get close to them when I did.
"Okay, stay close to me. After all, I am the one that knows more Mandarin out of the two of us." I roll my eyes as I nod. "You're acting like I'm going to be the one that gets distracted. Besides, you're always bouncing around trying to see as much as possible and getting yourself lost." She pouts at my comment, knowing I'm right. She's honestly like Mei and MK on steroids sometimes, but I guess everyone has one of those extroverted and distractible friends. "You're such a meanie." She says as she sticks her tongue out at me. "Yes, the meanest of meanies." We both just laugh at this before we meet our guide. They are the nicest and most patient person with us. My best friend did most of the talking while I just looked at everything. Our guide didn't mind, which I'm guessing is because of something my friend said but I didn't ask.
We ended up visiting a few temples before taking a bit of a break since my friend needed a little food break. While we were resting I had the feeling of being watched. I tried finding the source of whatever is staring at me, finding some small monkeys in a tree just staring at me. I mumble something to my friend about being right back before walking over to the tree. The small monkeys watched me approach then all but one left the tree. The one that stayed behind cooed at me, which confused the hell out of me, before it jumped down and headed into the forested area. The monkey stopped and looked back at me, almost as if checking if I was following. I felt compelled to follow, which I ended up doing. In hindsight this isn't the smartest thing to do, but it wouldn't be the first time I've done something idiotic.
I carefully followed the monkey all the way to a clearing that's full of monkeys along with a hut. It looked as nature had reclaimed it, but at the same time it seemed like someone lived in it. I walked down the rocky and grassy path towards the small building, no longer following the smaller monkey. All the other monkeys seemed to be watching me, but I ignored them as I reached the hut. As I approached the door I heard the sound of laughing along with what sounded like a tv. I lift my hand and hesitantly hold a fist near the door to knock, but I couldn't seem to bring myself to knock. I heard some chirping next to me, turning my gaze to the small monkey hanging on the vines that had grown on the wall of the hut. "Sorry, I don't speak monkey." I say as if the simian could understand me.
That's when the door to the hut opened followed by a voice catching my attention. I slightly jump and look at whoever just opened the door, ignoring the snickering coming from the small monkey to my right. My eyes widen as I take a step backwards, not believing the sight in front of me. There stood the golden monkey that captured my heart, but he looked similar to the live action version of him. He said something, but it didn't quite register in my brain as I was trying to wrap my head around the fact that the Monkey King actually exists. What I hadn't expected were tears to start to form in my eyes and roll down my cheeks. This caused some panic for the simian in front of me as well as myself. I quickly wipe the tears away as a somber laugh escapes my lips. "I guess I'm still not over my little adventure." I can tell by the confused look on Wukong's face that he doesn't understand what I'm saying, or maybe what I mean.
"Princess?" My breath hitches in my throat upon hearing that word. I avoided the word as much as possible because of how much it reminded me of him. A finger gently pokes my shoulder, almost as if he's testing to see if I'm real. When he was sure I'm not some kind of apparition or something he pulls me into a hug. His arms wrap around my form tightly as he buries his face into the crook of my neck. The breath I was holding released as new tears blurred my vision. "Wukong..?" He removes his head from its hiding spot and looks at me. He uses his tail to wipe away the tears that rolled down my cheeks. "I missed you princess." He spoke in such a soft tone it sounded as if he was trying to not cry. "H-How? We- I don't understand.." He just shakes his head. "Don't worry about it princess, it'll just confuse you and hurt your head." I just nod, thinking it's for the best to not question this. A smile appears on his face as he nuzzles my cheek. "You're never leaving my side ever again princess."
"As much as I'd love to do that, I can't. I'm only here in China for a few more days. Speaking of, I really should get back to my friend and our guide. They're both probably worried about me, especially my friend." This causes Wukong to pout and tighten his grip around my body. I spotted his tail flicking around in an annoyed manner from my words. "No. I just got you back. I'm not letting anything take you away from me again." I wiggle my arms out of his hold and gently place my hands on his cheeks. "Sun Wukong, I love you, but I have to get back to the others. You can join me if you're so afraid something is going to happen to me." His cheeks slightly turn red while he thinks about my suggestion. His grip loosens as he nods, which allows me to get out of his grasp. "You should probably put on something that won't have you standing out among others." He looks down at what he's wearing, which is his iconic battle armor. "What's wrong with this?" He questions as he looks back at me. I give him a look, which earns a sigh from him. "Fine, I'll change."
"Where did you go?!" A soft "oof" escaped me when I got tackle hugged by my best friend. "Relax, I just did a little bit of exploring. I didn't even go far." I say as I push her off of me. A sudden weight is on my shoulder as arms are wrapped around my waist. "Who is this princess?" I snorted at the underlying distrust in his tone for my friend. "Who am I? I'm her best friend. Who are you? Why are you all touchy with my best friend?" I covered Wukong's mouth before he could speak. I properly introduce the two to each other, but while leaving out the fact that Wukong is actually the Monkey King because that'd be difficult to explain. "Now let's go so our guide doesn't have to listen to your squabbling." I say as I wiggle out of Wukong's grasp while the two open their mouths to speak, probably to argue with me.
Wukong quickly follows after me, over to our guide. Him and our guide give each other a look that gives off the vibe of knowing each other, but neither say a word. Instead the golden monkey wraps an arm around my waist and holds me close. "Seriously?" I ask as I look at him, noticing a sly smirk on his lips. I knew he was doing this on purpose. My best friend decided to put aside her worries about Wukong until after the day was over, mostly so she could berate me with questions about him. Especially since I've never said anything about having a boyfriend or having met anyone to be close enough to even act this way towards me. I'd tell her later since it'd be a lot easier than doing it in such a public place.
I successfully removed Wukong's arm from around my waist and just held his hand. This of course earned a pout from him. My best friend teased him about being such a simp for me which made both me and him flustered. That led to the two of them having a bit of a squabble. Our guide just shook their head with a smile on their face. They said something along the lines of, "still the same mischievous monkey", which confused me. I leaned against Wukong, which brought the quarreling to an end, as I looked up at him. "Do you know our guide?" He looked between me and our guide a few times before actually answering me. "Maybe. I've seen and met so many people it's hard to tell sometimes." I could tell he wasn't being completely truthful, but I decided against pushing the matter at the moment. Instead I just wanted to enjoy my time with Wukong and my best friend.
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"Welcome home princess~" I jumped upon entering my bedroom, quickly turning towards my bed to find Wukong laying there. "Wukong! Don't scare me like that!" He just laughs at my reaction. "I'm sorry princess, but I wanted to surprise you." I shake my head as I put my bag down by my nightstand while kicking off my shoes. "Just because you've decided to come live with me, since you wouldn't let me leave otherwise, doesn't mean you can get away with surprising me like this. I swear you're worse than Mac with surprising people." I hear the sudden noise of movement on my bed followed by the feeling of burning holes into my skull. I look at the golden monkey that's on my bed, sitting there with an unreadable expression. However the way his eyes are more of a fiery gold than their normal soft gold hinted at what is going on through his head. "Relax you silly monkey, I haven't actually met the shadow warrior. If I had I would've told you, though I have a feeling you'd know before I could even tell you." Even with my words he still didn't relax. It earned a sigh from me as I moved closer to the bed. "Wukong, I was only making a reference to what I've seen from the show-" My voice dies down in my throat as I realize that I'm bringing up the lego show that I've been trying to avoid speaking about. It's not that it was a taboo subject, but I felt awkward bringing it up since it brought back the memories of my time in that world.
"The show? What show? Which show? You know I'm fully aware of the different pieces of media based on and inspired by me. So you're going to have to be very specific." This seemingly got him to relax some, his eyes returning to the soft golden color that I'm used to. "Don't worry about it. It's not important anyways." I say, quickly dismissing the subject as I plaster a smile on my face in hopes of him getting the hint of dropping the subject. Of course this just brings a look of concern to his face. He leans towards me as he snakes his arms around my waist. The soft way he said my name had the smile on my face melt away, knowing for a fact that he's not dropping the subject. "Please tell me what show you're talking about." I rest my forehead against his as a sigh escapes my lips. "The Lego Monkie Kid show." I mumble, but I know he heard me. Especially when I see the flash of pain enter his eyes. "Oh." Another sigh escaped me, I didn't want to make things awkward like this yet that's exactly what happened. I remove myself from Wukong's grasp and move away from the bed. "What did you do while I was gone?"
"I know you're just trying to change the subject because we both know exactly what I do when you're not here." I bit my lip as I moved around my room to distract myself. I didn't want to talk about the lego show or the memories it brought with it. "Princess, you know it's been nearly a year since then. It's okay to still be hurting from it, but it's not healthy to keep avoiding the sub-" I abruptly cut off Wukong, my grip on a small stuffed monkey I've had since I was a child basically consumed the plushy. "YOU WEREN'T THE ONE WHO DIED IN THE ARMS OF SOMEONE YOU LOVE SO MUCH THAT YOU KNEW YOU'D NEVER SEE AGAIN!" I didn't mean to raise my voice like that, to yell at him, but it just happened before I could even stop it. Silence filled the room, it was only broken by the sound of movement behind me. My body was turned around and pulled into the chest of the monkey demon that had previously been on my bed. The plush monkey in my hands fell from my grasp as my body lightly shook in his arms. Tears filled my eyes then spilled down my cheeks faster than I could register them. Words of reassurance and comfort escaped his lips as one of his hands gently rubbed my back.
We stood there for what felt like hours, but was probably only a few minutes. Yet it felt so cathartic. Slowly I lifted my head up to look at my boyfriend. I could see the pain that he's trying to hide from me. "I'm sorry Wukong. I shouldn't have said that or even yelled at you. You got hurt by it just like me. You had to watch me die in your arms with no way of saving me. I-" The light furred simian cut me off by placing a gentle quick kiss on my lips. "Don't beat yourself up over it. You only lashed out like that from bottling up everything."
"But I-"
"No buts. Unless it's yours I'm grabbing." I couldn't help the laugh that bubbled out of me from his attempt at lightening the situation. "There's that smile I love so much." I shake my head as I smile at him, appreciating the way he lightened my mood. I know I'll have to work through my feelings and the trauma of dying in a different world, but I can do that another time. Though this did give me the idea of how I could start to work through my trauma.
I wiggle out of Wukong's grasp and walk over to my drawing desk where my laptop currently sits. "Princess, what are you doing?" I grab my laptop and turn around to face my boyfriend, seeing that he had picked up the plush monkey off the floor. "I'm getting my computer so we can watch something while cuddling on my bed. Unless you don't want it." I watch the way his tail starts to move around in an excited manner. I bite my lip to not laugh at the sight; I knew he would enjoy the idea of cuddling. "How could I say no to cuddling my girlfriend?" He asks as he climbs back onto my bed, his question a rhetorical one.
I join him on the bed and sit in between his legs with my back against his chest. I open my laptop and quickly find the lego show I would actively avoid. "Lego Monkie Kid? But I thought-"
"As much as it hurts to talk about, I still love this show. Maybe watching it with you will make it easier to open up about what happened when I was there with you."
"We don't have to watch it."
"I know, but I want to. If it wasn't for it I wouldn't have met you."
"But you wouldn't have-"
"I know. Let's not think about that and enjoy the show. If we can't watch more than an episode or two I'll switch it over to something else, deal?"
"Deal." He says as he places the monkey plush on my lap before wrapping his arms around my waist while he rests his head on my shoulder and he wraps his tail around my leg. I start the show, putting on A Hero is Born since it starts the whole show, then get comfortable in Wukong's grasp and grab ahold of the plush monkey. We were only really able to watch A Hero is Born and Bad Weather before switching it over to the The Monkey King movie from 2014. As much as Wukong says he's not a fan of the movie he still enjoys watching it with me. Though I will say the second and third The Monkey King movies are my favorite compared to the first one. No matter what we watch I'm just glad to have the Great Sage Equal to Heaven back in my life. Even though he can be a handful at times, but I won't complain... much.
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2/15/23: So it's been a very long time since I started writing this second part, but I just couldn't figure out where to go with it. Now I have completed it! If you enjoyed this Monkey King oneshot you should check out the Wukong x Reader book I made called Journey To My World?? it's a bit of a reverse isekai story while also being connected to LMK. I'm almost done writing that story and will be making another LMK x reader story, but this time for Macaque. I hope you all enjoy this second part that I've taken forever to write. Thank you for those who have been waiting patiently for this part and sorry for such a delay on it.