He didn't think this would happen.
Sure, he'd never been able to truly put his guard down around Tr-Tang, but he'd at least hoped (and tricked himself into thinking) that it'd be fine, people may be similar to their reincarnations sometimes, but he wasn't even sure Tang was a reincarnation, so it would have been fine. Tense and awful, but fine.
(He stuck around even if it wasn't, because it was similar and because it wasn't, he thought it had made for a balance of being just similar enough that he wouldn't have to miss the old times and just different enough that it didn't feel like the same, awful situation.)
(somehow it felt like there was too much of both instead of a balance.)
He wished he hadn't responded with a flinch when Tang had asked,
"Does the circlet still work?"
Wukong has fallen off the stool, that word coming from his mouth of all people-
He looked up and saw - Tripitaka's lips moving, he could tell what would come next if he didn't act fast and he panicked, reaching for the circlet and spouting out the quickest lie that would get him to stop---
He'd assumed Tripitaka had decided against using the circlet, but he'd assumed before and had been wrong, so he waited.
And waited.
And suddenly someone different than the monk, someone pink, was by his side, he looked up to see zhu bajie--
…
It was Pigsy. It wasn't his brother, just…Pigsy, standing by him with worry. They were at…Pigsy's noodles, and--
He whipped his head around, and found Tang standing there in horror. Not tripitaka, just Tang.
Before anyone could say anything more, Wukong had become a bird and had flown as fast as he could away from there to the mountain.
Nobody saw him for weeks until he'd come back and acted like nothing had happened, and had avoided going anywhere near Tang.
He didn't think it would happen, but now he was more careful, timing any visit specifically so he wouldn't have to talk to Tang, usually having MK visit him instead, anything just to not hear his voice speak that damned word again.
He could still sometimes hear the monk whisper things if everything was quiet enough, he honestly appreciated it when the kid was around to distract him from the quiet illusion of his old masters whispers.
Out of all the whispers though, the ones that felt a little louder were always the ones he remembered right before the circlet began to hurt him, or before he and his master kissed.
All the whsipers sounded louder and more frequent after what had happened at Pigsy's.
He wish he'd never stuck around to listen to Tang's question.
sorry I wrote this quickly and just winged it n all I'm sorry again for not asking permission I just thought it would be cool I won't post it or anything I just went mad with the idea of this and now it exists-
I loved this, it was like opening a present so don't apologize!
look at what we inspired :")
