I'm thinking spicynoodleshipping + shadowpeach #25 & 36, thank you.
Today is pain day, I just want to write angst and people being hurt physically and emotionally apparently. Sorry if you expected something more light hearted... Fair warning here for not-graphic descriptions of blood and life threatening injuries (that is once again not being taken seriously by the inured party), I wanted the excuse to follow up on a headcanon for one of these characters and I tried not to be overly descriptive.
"You have until the count of three to remove your arms from my person, or so help me…!"/ “When I say run, that means keep running."
"You have until the count of three to remove your arms from my person, or so help me...!" Red Son shouted, ocean water soaked hair sticking to his face as he tried to claw his way out of the Monkey King's hold. Steam lifted from his hair and clothes as he tried to light himself back on fire, to dry off, to get back to Xiaotian, to do something anything except be held back in his post-fight weakened state.
For his part Sun Wukong held him tighter, keeping him from slipping from his grip and falling from his cloud back into the ocean he had just fished him from or into the hard ground of the beach shores below. "Red, we have to trust them!"
"They could be DEAD Sun Wukong!"
"They can handle themselves, Red, now stop moving!" Wukong planted his foot down into the cloud as much as he could and moved to knock Red off balance to grab him around his waist and carry him away over his shoulder.
In all honesty he didn't trust his own words. Xiaotian and Red Son had been ambushed by some group of advanced tech weilding demons during some kind of outing (date, scavenger hunt, Wukong didn't take the time to ask) and they had called him for backup. He'd had no choice but to bring his current unwanted house guest, Macaque, because he didn't trust him to not antagonize the monkeys back on Mount Huaguo.
The situation had quickly gone... poorly. Red Son had already burnt himself out using far too much of his fire powers to fight the rapidly repairing bots at the demon's disposal and they had taken the time to repeatedly douse him in ocean water as an extra layer of protection. Xiaotian was holding his own but he was clearly getting tired, grateful if incredibly confused about the backup he had recieved. It hadn't taken long before the Monkie Kid turned to his mentor and asked him to take Red somewhere safe to recuperate and come back when he was "fired up" again. Macaque had shoved Red at Wukong, hissing a “When I say run, that means keep running" to the younger demon.
Red Son was decidedly unhappy about this.
"Xiaotian asked me to keep you safe and I'm not g-"
The sound of an explosion of some sort behind them stopped the Monkey King in his tracks and he turned around to see the mountain they had been flying from begin to crumble. The mountain that Xiaotian and Macaque had still been on. Crumbling...
Wukong barely registered the fact Red had stopped fighting against him and was just holding onto him and had started shaking, his hold digging through his top layer to grip the fur on his shoulders painfully. He didn't know what was worse, his own vantage point of seeing the moutain fall before his eyes after missing the explosion... or Red seeing whatever had broken it and now only being able to hear what was happening behind him as Wukong held him in a tighter grip.
"No.... no no no no no..." The Monkey King felt Red's breathing speed up and grow desperate at his words and he cursed as he made a quick beeline for the ground, stumbling and nearly falling into Red Son as he tried to set the fire demon on the ground. "No, no, they're fine, they're fine Red, I'm just going to-"
"They were still on there," Red Son whispered, grip not loosening as he tried to look past Wukong's body blocking his view.
"They're fine, they have to be."
"They were on there Wukong!" Red said again, and the small wisp of steam he felt against his cheek did not come from Red trying to dry himself off again.
The air between them grew tenser and tenser the more seconds passed and just as Wukong felt like something would snap he heard a sound from behind them. It was familar, growing louder the closer it came, and like a shooting star the end of his staff burried itself in the beach sand a few feet away from them and shrank as two seperate forms fell from the sky with varying yelps of pain and surprise, the larger one bouncing and landing a few feet further away.
"XIAOTIAN!" "XIAOTIAN, MACAQUE!" Red and Wukong shouted at the same time and Red finally let go of his iron grip. They ran toward Xiaotian, both breathing a sigh of relief as the younger man sat up with a groan. Wukong froze again when he saw the varying splashes of red coating and dripping from his shirt and jacket, opening his mouth to say something else before being cut off.
"It's not mine," Xiaotian said quickly in his heavy breathes and the tone of his voice, laced with fear and confusion and shaky as Red knelt in the sand beside him to look him over told Wukong exactly what he needed to know. The quick gaze and nod back at the other figure sent him rushing off to leave the couple to themselves. He trusted Red to take care of his student.
"Xiaotian I-I thought- the mountain it-" Red Son stumbled on his words as he let the steam tears seep from his eyes freely, not caring who saw them now that they were from relief, and he looked over the Monkie Kid. Despite being coated in fresh blood he looked... he looked fine! A few scrapes and when he looked at his neck he saw the beginning of a nasty hand shapped bruise and claw scrapes... like someone had grabbed him by he scruff of his neck and yanked hard. "What-"
"Macaque!" Xiaotian interupted, grabbing Red's hands and standing himself up. "Their robot things, they did someting and he grabbed me and jumped in front of me and-"
"Holy FUCK." Sun Wukong's exclimation startled both of the younger men and Red Son didn't need to be told to follow the other as he rushed over to the two ancient monkeys.
Macaque had bounced hard when Xiaotian had landed and lost grip on him, eventally coming to stop more than a few feet away and leaving a... genuinely concerning trail of blood behind him. Red Son couldn't help but think this was far too much blood for anyone, let alone someone as powerful as the Six-Earred Macaque himself, to leave behind and still survive.
And yet, somehow above all odds, he could see the dark furred tail weakly trying to thump against the ground from where Wukong had rolled him onto his back. The Monkey King was leaning over him, his own tail shaking stifly along with his arms as he ran his hands over his sideburns and through his hair as he was making an odd half-laugh and half-muffled yelling sound.
"Wukong, wh-oh my HEAVEN!" It was Red's turn to yell, staring down at the the other monkey in the ground.
"Hello to you too," Macaque said through gritted teeth, an expression of severly inappropriate for the situation amusement on his face.
He looked... bad. He looked bad, those were the only words Red could think of to describe the sight. Whatever glamor he had was gone, his eye scar and what would have been his milky white eye in full vew.
Unfortunately, it seemed as if something had happened because the eye was definitely not there now. Much like a nice chunk out of out of the matching arm. And he had a nasty gash in the same side.
That explained the sheer amount of blood everywhere.
"How are you alive right now?" He breathed out in disbelief.
"Let's just say," Macaque groaned, bringing up his good arm to wipe away some of the blood from his face. "Immortality and invulnerablity aren't the same for everyone. I literally cannot die."
"Like..." Red swallowed, looking at his wounds again. "Cannot... at all?"
"Cannot at all," Macaque confirmed. "But man can I get beat to shit. Healing takes forever too, but I'll heal."
There was a soft sniffling sound and something that sounded like a laugh from Red's side and when he turned he could see Xiaotian grimmacing with a half smile on his face. "I'm glad you're not going to die but never save me like that again please. I'd rather us both be hurt but in one piece next time. I almost dropped you pogoing out of there too."
"There ain't gonna be a next time kid," Macaque growled, but it was weak and didn't have any real bite behind it. He looked at Xiaotian with a glare. "And stop crying. Like I said I'll be fine, give me 3 days and I'll kick your ass when I steal you for training again. Just didn't want Peaches over here keeping me up all night with his crying if you got really hurt."
The mention of his nickname got a reaction out of Wukong, a soft chuckle and a heavy exhale of breath. All 3 other people watched in confusion as he leaned down, resting his forehead against the other monkey's softly as his tail started to sway in the sand. "I appreciate it... but now I'm gonna keep you up all night cleaning your wounds you idiot." His words were harsh but his tone of voice was soft, gentle almost, and if they listened closely they could hear a soft almost imperceptable rumble from his chest.
"That's, uh..." Macaque started, looking away from the face so close to his own. "That's still... better. Right?" He sounded just as, if not more, confused than Red Son and Xiaotian were at the Monkey King's bizarre and unexpected reaction. But he didn't tell the other ancient to stop.
"OH!" Red said suddently, turning to Xiaotian. "The demons, are they-!?"
"Dead," he responded with a sigh. "Like, super dead. If they managed to survive that explosion they were definitely buried in that... mountain-lanche? Whatever, they're not coming after us."
"Good," Wukong said softly as he sat up. "I'm gonna fly Macaque back to Mount Huaguo, you two follow us. Get cleaned up. Stay with us for the night?"
His words were stilted, awkward, but heartfelt.
The two men woudn't have said no even if they weren't.