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“You’re sure you're ok?” Xiaotian asked, hovering awkwardly in the doorway to his bedroom.
“I’m fine,” Red Son said quietly from his position sitting on the younger’s bed, voice still scratchy. “I just… need some alone time, if that’s ok?”
“Yeah.” Xiaotian set the tray he was carrying onto the dresser next to the door. “Sandy made you some tea, and Pigsy heated up some noodles for you. I'll just… leave them here. Call me if you need anything, ok?”
Red Son nodded.
(They both knew he likely didn’t have the strength to yell, and he didn’t want to go downstairs, so Xiaotian would be checking on him every twenty minutes or so.)
Xiaotian closed the door, making his way downstairs. The others- (Sandy, Pigsy, Tang, and Xiaojiao) were all discussing what to do now in the kitchen with mildly hushed voices. Wukong was absent, and that was… for the best.
Pigsy turned to the sound of his son coming down the stairs, and raised an eyebrow. “How is he?”
“Quiet.” Xiaotian sighed, receiving a squeeze on his shoulder from Tang. “Should we tell DBK and PIF that we’ve got him?”
Pigsy hesitated. “I mean, we haven’t seen ‘em at all, and I don’t exactly want them to come over and start a yelling match… Can you ask Red about it later?”
“Sure.” Xiaotian swung a chair around to sit on. “So… what do we do now?”
Tang shrugged. “Just… keep him safe, I guess. Try not to let him die- maybe you and Xiaojiao can take him on a walk in a few days once he’s healed up a bit, show him the area a little more? He’ll obviously be staying here for a while. Pigsy?”
“He’s staying in our apartment,” the pigman confirmed. “Xiaojiao, d’you wanna come with me to set the place up a bit?”
“Sure!” she chirped, and the two exited the shop.
“He’s adopted another one,” Tang murmured, then shook his head. “I have too, I suppose. How’s his arm?”
“Still broken,” Xiaotian said. “His ankle looks better though- I know demons have fast healing powers, but geez. He’s quick!”
“How does he like the tea?” Sandy asked eagerly.
“...No idea. Didn’t get a chance to ask.”
“Aww.”
“Sorry.”
***
(“Do you want us to tell your parents that you’re here?” Xiaotian asked quietly, sitting in the back of Pigsy’s car with Red Son sitting next to him.
“...No,” the demon said eventually, and continued to stare out the window.
Xiaotian nodded, and said nothing else.)
***
“Did you sleep at all last night?”
Red Son looked up from staring at the blank TV while sitting on the couch. “...No?” The pigman (Pigsy, Red thought his name was) sighed, flicking on the light. Red felt a tug of something in his chest. “Sorry.”
“No, don’t apologize. You're fine.” He gestured to the TV. “You could’ve turned that on if you couldn’t sleep.”
“...Didn’t want to bother you.” Red Son shifted awkwardly on the couch, not sure if he should stand up or not. “Sorry again.”
“Gods, kid. You’re just like Xiaotian on his first night here.”
“..Sorry?”
Pigsy sighed, and raised his index finger before Red could apologize again. “Ok. From now on, don’t apologize when you think you’ve done something wrong until I explicitly say I’m upset, ok?”
“Ok.” Red Son swallowed, standing up as he did so. “Are you upset?”
“Nope. Now, I know you demons don’t need to eat as often as humans do, but since you didn’t sleep, you’re eating. You okay with noodles once we get to the shop? You seemed to like it yesterday.”
Red Son shrugged. “Sure, I guess.”
He shifted awkwardly as the other man (Tang?) came through the doorway from him and Pigsy’s room, suddenly tensing as his eyes landed on Red, and then relaxing a split second later. “Oh, right, we have another kid,” Red heard him murmur sleepily, and the demon opened his mouth to say something without actually saying it.
He closed his mouth.
“I’m not a kid,” he managed finally, then coughed harshly, the dust in his throat suddenly reappearing now that he actually needed to talk.
Pigsy silently handed him a glass of water and a concerned look. “We should probably get your lungs checked out,” he murmured, half to himself.
“I’m fine,” Red Son wheezed, chugging the water and coughing a few more times before straightening and brushing himself off- he hadn’t actually changed into the spare pajamas Pigsy had given him, but he had quietly washed his coat right after his hosts had gone to sleep so he didn’t get dust and dirt on their stuff. “...Should we go?”
“Lemme get dressed, then yeah.” Red Son nodded, and the pigman exited the room.
And then he was alone with a man that had just called him a kid. Had implied that Red was his kid.
“...Hi,” Red said awkwardly.
“You’re older than me,” Tang exclaimed suddenly.
“...Yeah? But only by like, maybe 500 years?”
“I need to sit down. I’m going to have a midlife crisis now.”
“...Ok? Sorry?”
“No no, you’re fine. I just… wow. When you’re better and I’m more awake I’m going to have SO many questions.”
“Uh.” Red gestured to Tang when Pigsy re-entered the room, donning his chef’s outfit. “I think I broke him?”
The man snorted, gently flicking his husband on the back of his head. “Stop bothering the poor kid, Tang. Make sure you actually eat something before you come over to the shop to bother me later, ok?”
“Mm,” Tang smiled, “what if I don’t and you’re forced to feed me on the house?”
“You better not,” Pigsy growled, but Red Son could tell it was surprisingly light-hearted, and the pigman turned to him as they walked out to the car. “How’s your arm feeling?”
Red Son glanced at the cast the big blue one had slapped on him the day before. “Better, I guess. ...You didn’t have to do this.”
“Course I did. You were hurt, didn’t want to go back to your parents, and probably had nowhere else to go.”
“I have an apartment of my own, you didn’t have to have to deal with me-”
“Do your parents know where your apartment is?”
“...Probably, yeah.”
“Well, they hopefully don’t know where mine is. You’re safe here, kid. And hey- I want to help you. You’re here, and you’re staying here as long as you need to. Got it?”
“...Yeah.” Red Son went silent as he got in the car with Pigsy in the driver’s seat next to him. “...Thanks.”
***
“How’d it go?” Xiaotian asked, half-listening for an answer as he started to pack the noodles for delivery.
“Decent,” Pigsy sighed. “He didn’t sleep, though. ...Won’t admit it, but I think he didn’t want to have nightmares about what happened.” He glanced back into the kitchen, at the demon who was mildly struggling to eat with one hand not being usable to keep the bowl steady. “Hey, at least he stopped calling me sir.”
Xiaotian paused in loading the noodles into the cooler. “Maybe I can ask Xiaojiao to talk to him about their bikes and stuff later? Might make him feel a little better.”
Pigsy considered that for a moment, and then smiled, ruffling his kid’s hair. “Good idea, kid. Now get movin’ or I won’t give you a raise!”
Xiaotian yelped, scrambling to fix the last bag of noodles in the cooler and rushed out the door. There was a yelled “Be safe!” from Pigsy as the young adult left, and he got a thumbs-up in return before the noodle cart disappeared down the street.
Pigsy smiled as his son left, and then turned back to the other new child in his possession. “You doing ok? I would prefer if you just hung around the shop today- you’re still injured, and some of the neighbors don’t really… like you. No offence.”
Red Son shrugged, eyes sliding to the few people in the shop- it was still early, after all. “Won’t I drive away your customers if that’s the case?”
Pigsy shrugged. “I mean, you’ve never really been in here before, so… If they wanna leave, it’s their problem.” He didn’t mention the fact that he suspected some of his regulars to actually be demons in disguise. Hey, if they liked his noodles and didn’t randomly attack the area every few weeks…
Speaking of which.
He thanked a customer for coming, gave them their noodles, and turned once again to Red Son. “No attacking people, either. Even if they insult you. Just find a way to throw something at them, and make it look like an accident.”
Red Son managed a small smile, and that was enough.
***
Talking to the Red Son was… an interesting experience.
Especially since he didn’t seem to remember anything about being Red Boy, which was what Tang had wanted to talk to him about.
Hey, obviously a lot had happened for the kid once his father had been trapped under the mountain, maybe there was an incident where his memory got wiped or something.
So it was mostly Tang asking about something, Red being confused, and Tang having to explain it.
Red Son would nod, and he did chime in sometimes to say what he thought his younger self would’ve done. ...Which was somehow surprisingly accurate to the lore Tang had (especially the lore in his own book, that he had written. Tang was especially proud of that.) access to.
Tang had come by during the lunch rush, managed to convince Pigsy to give him a free bowl of noodles with the half-lie that “I forgot what you told me and haven’t eaten anything yet today”, and immediately sat down with Red Son who needed a confirmation from Pigsy that he was allowed to leave the kitchen before he agreed to talk about his past.
He hadn’t really talked much about what life was like after DBK was trapped under the mountain, and Tang figured it was a… sensitive subject.
He didn’t think Red really wanted to think about his parents anyway.
So he mostly asked about Fiery Cloud Mountain and cave, which was probably still somewhere out in the desert now that he thought about it. Welp, time for a research road trip!
Xiaojiao showed up halfway through their talk, which was unexpected but not unwelcome. She managed to wait until they reached a stopping point (or what she thought counted as a stopping point), then slid into Tang’s place after kicking him out from his seat to ramble about machines with Red.
He seemed hesitant at first, but then he opened up more, eventually forgetting his reluctant maner and eagerly discussing with her the statistics of motorbikes, trucks, and his bull clones which he seemed especially proud of. From what Tang managed to understand, Red had made the first hundred or so clones by hand, until he had figured out an automated system to make them. He still missed making them, the kid admitted, then gazed worryingly at the kitchen appliances.
Maybe it was time to bring back the double lock on the doors and windows.
Tang plopped down on his usual stool next to the counter, leaning over to stare at Pigsy. “How’d he manage before I showed up?”
“Pretty good,” his husband said. “Wasn’t too much of a bother- did have to get some paper from the back so he didn’t draw plans for some machine on the counters.”
Tang laughed, sliding his empty bowl over the counter with puppy eyes.
Pigsy snorted, eventually snatching his bowl, refilling it, and slamming it back down on the counter for him. “This is the last one,” he warned.
Tang smiled.
He always said that.
***
The next time Xiaotian had to use the spare key to Pigsy and Tang’s apartment, it… apparently wasn’t a good night for either the young adult or the demon sleeping in their apartment.
Xiaotian opened the door to the apartment to the light on, Tang making tea, and Pigsy rubbing Red’s back as the demon had a panic attack.
Said demon’s head whipped around at the sound of the opening door, trembling increased by another body in the room. He was gasping about not being able to breathe and how everything was tight and hurt- Xiaotian knew the feeling, but also knew that Red’s rambling wasn’t just normal bad panic attack behaviour.
Pigsy spoke calm and clear. “Xiaotian, can you go help Tang with the tea?”
“Got it.” He made his way over to his other dad who immediately pulled him into a one-armed hug.
“What’s wrong?”
“Oh, I just- nightmare, it’s nothing, I can leave-”
“No no, don’t leave. You want to stay here the rest of the night?”
“...I mean, the couch is kind of taken-”
“Don’t worry about it. I don’t think Red’s going to be able to sleep after this, and I think it’ll be nice to have someone he knows better than us to be with him.”
Xiaotian turned back to the breaking down demon and his other dad- Pigsy was using the five things method, and Red was choking out answers, managing to take deep, shuddering breaths in between. “So… what happened?”
“Nightmare, same as you. About… I’m sure you can guess.”
“Yeah.” Xiaotian’s mouth dried up as he glanced over at Red. “...Do you think he’ll be ok?”
Tang sighed. “I don’t know. But he’s with us now, and we’ll be able to help him more than his parents ever would. We’ll help him for as long as he wants us to- for as long as he needs us to, and that might be a while. And it’ll be ok.” Tang was silent for a moment. “He’s a lot like you, you know. A lot of anxiety until you get him talking, among other things.” He poured the tea out into one of Sandy’s mugs- the blue man had insisted on leaving everyone a few mugs, said they were nice and big and were able to hold enough tea to calm anyone down. “Can you bring this to ‘em?”
“Got it.” Xiaotian took the mug and headed over to Pigsy and the now slightly-calmer demon, who took it with a shaky hand and set it down on the table to cool a little bit. Xiaotian sat down in the chair next to the couch until Red managed to calm down more, and then he gently handed the tea back to the demon.
Red took a few sips before setting it down again, pulling away from Pigsy slightly in an effort to begin to act like none of that had ever happened. “Thanks,” he managed eventually, and his voice was raspy and shaky. He looked like he was about to start crying again, but he wiped his eyes with his coat furiously (Xiaotian noticed he was wearing the spare pajama set under it) before letting out a few shaky breaths. “...Sor-”
“Don’t,” Pigsy sighed, and Red Son shrunk down slightly. “No, I’m not mad at you. Don’t think that it was your fault that you woke us up either- I would have preferred that you came to us instead of just trying to ride it out on the couch alone, but to be fair you don’t know us that well yet.”
Xiaotian recognized the speech from his first days here- nightmares had been common back then, and he hadn’t known either of his dads that well.
“I’m not upset at you, Red. You’re ok. You’re safe. You’re in our apartment, you’re not down there.”
Red Son let out another shaky few breaths, eventually leaning back into the touch of Pigsy rubbing his back. “...Ok.”
And the world was silent aside from a scared demon’s ragged breaths.
***
Xiaotian sat down next to Red on the couch after he had explained his own nightmare to Pigsy and Tang in private (thinking he wasn’t worthy to be Wukong’s successor, along with… recent events working their way in there, causing Wukong’s eyes to glow a terrifying blue.) and had gotten his own comforting.
Pigsy and Tang had gone to bed a while after Red was calm again, with the claim “We’re not as young as we used to be, you know”, and said it was perfectly fine to get them up if either of them needed anything. Just not, like, permission to go to the bathroom.
Pigsy had made Xiaotian in charge (“You’ve been here more often, and you know the layout. Also you’re legally my child.”), and left the two on the couch with the light and TV on, sound quiet but not quite muted.
“So…” Xiaotian said eventually. “You wanna watch something to take your mind off it?”
“Sure,” Red Son said dully, sitting curled up in the corner of the couch with a fresh mug of tea in his lap.
“Ok.” Xiaotian set up the movie selection they had, turning to Red. “You want to watch anything specific?”
He shrugged, clearly not minding as long as it was something to distract him.
“Ok then.” Xiaotian selected his favourite movie- one about a princess with magical hair. He had loved that movie when he was a little kid, though he and Xiaojiao hadn’t realized they were watching the American version with Chinese captions on until Pigsy watched it with them one time.
They watched the movie in near-silence, though Xiaotian was murmuring some of the scene’s words under his breath. He knew all the songs, and he was proud of that.
“She’s a lot like my mother,” Red had commented about the villain at one point in the movie.
Neither said anything after that.
***
Ten Months Prior
Wukong slammed the demon into the ground, staff nearly splitting his head open but Red rolled out of the way just in time. “What the-” he spat dirt and blood out of his mouth, wiping his bloody nose as he stood up to avoid a swing at his chest- “hell are you doing?!”
Wukong’s eyes glowed a bright blue, and-
And Red Son’s head was filled with white and blue and death , and pain shot all through his head and body as he was filled with the sensation of pain and agony and all the deaths of all the living things, and he watched the Earth explode and burn and he watched everyone he knew die.
And then he opened his eyes.
And he was lying on the ground, blood covering some of his body, a shattered arm and a twisted leg being the cause of most of his pain. He tried to cry out, tried to teleport, but his powers didn’t seem to be working-
Or he didn’t have any.
Cold shot through his body and darkness covered his vision. He tried to see what was going on, but all he felt was fear and confusion-
And then a mountain slammed down on top of him and he was screaming.
He was screaming and crying and he couldn’t breathe , and he was dying and he was drowning and he couldn’t move and he couldn’t use his powers and he was dying .
There was dirt in his mouth and dirt in his clothes, dirt covering everything and dirt everywhere, blood coughing it’s way up his throat as he attempted to scrabble at the stone above him, failed but ripped his fingernails open in the small space, blood was everywhere, blood and dirt and death and he couldn’t breathe -
And he passed out.
***
Ten months later
“Has that mountain always been there?” Sandy asked absently.
And the Monkey King froze.
And he took the staff and pried the mountain up, exposing a lump of dirt and blood and red .
“Monkey King, what are you-” Xiaotian’s words slowed to a stop, freezing as he surveyed the scene in front of him. “...Red Son?”
“I didn’t-” Monkey King gasped- “I forgot- she didn’t let me remember-”
Xiaotian grabbed his mentor’s shoulder, remembering nearly a year ago when his mentor had been possessed by the WBS shortly after the Spider Queen’s attack. They thought she had let him go without any damage done.
Apparently not.
Monkey King hurriedly shook the dirt off of the unconscious (dead?) demon, shaking him. “C’mon kid, your parents are gonna kill me if you die-” he checked the demon’s heartbeat, and-
Thank the gods.
“I don’t think he’s dead,” Wukong said eventually. “I mean, his heart is beating, but he’s not breathing. He’s also really cold- there’s a thing that elemental demons do, when they’re severely injured. They go into a sort of coma, where their energy that is normally used for their powers is used to keep them alive. They need to be kept next to their element, but they’ll be fine after a couple weeks or mont-”
And then Red Son coughed.
“-or maybe he’s not doing that,” Wukong concluded, “maybe he was just unconscious.”
Xiaotian ran forward to help the demon, but Wukong held him back. “Hold on, kid, give him some space-”
Red Son pulled himself up and hacked out a weird amount of dirt and blood, vomiting up the mud next to Wukong, who withdrew his hand. “Woah there, kid. You good now?”
Red Son turned to Wukong, and-
His eyes widened, and whispered “No”s came out of his mouth, growing louder as he managed a “Stay the hell away from me!”, tried to stand up, failed, landed painfully in the dirt as his eyes landed on the mountain top that in front of him behind Wukong, and nearly screamed.
Xiaotian rushed forward, pushing his mentor out of the way (“Hey!”), grabbing Red Son by the shoulders. “It’s ok, you’re ok, we’re gonna take you somewhere safe-”
Red Son had no response to that other than raspy shrieking and more coughing which was really starting to be concerning. Xiaotian turned to Xiaojiao, who had just been watching in horror. “Go get Pigsy!”
She nodded, sprinting off. Xiaotian rubbed Red on the back as the demon hacked up blood and dirt, the young adult grabbing the water bottle that he always carried with him and held it up to Red Son. The demon chugged it, ended up vomiting most of it out, but at least he was done coughing up dirt. He scrambled farther away from Wukong, and the Monkey King frowned, standing up and walking closer. Red Son raised his arms above his head to protect himself, and-
Xiaotian put himself between his mentor and the demon, blocking Wukong from seeing Red Son. “Monkey King- I think you should leave.”
“What? But I-”
“Monkey King.” Xiaotian swallowed. “Leave.”
The Monkey King hesitated for a second, and then sighed, annoyed. “ Fine .” He hopped up on his cloud and disappeared, likely heading back to Flower Fruit Mountain.
Xiaotian turned back to Red Son. “Are you ok?”
The demon shook his head, eyes still wide and the area around his mouth covered with blood and dirt.
“It’s ok, you’re gonna be ok, we’re gonna get you help, ok?”
Red Son nodded, managing to stand up with Xiaotian’s help.
They managed to make their way back to Sandy, and Pigsy was gaining closer by the second, Xiaojiao following close behind with bandages and water.
“You’re gonna be ok,” Xiaotian promised. “You’re gonna be ok.”
He didn’t even believe his own words.