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Chirp!
Chirp chirp!
The sound cut through the air and Macaque's ears, making him freeze as fear and anger filled his heart while the noise cut through his very soul like a blade.
His cubs.
His cubs were calling, and they were terrified.
He swiftly sunk into the shadows, seeking out his cubs with all the speed he could muster, shooting to them and the suitor that had them cornered with a rage filled swiftness, his lips curling into a snarl at the sight of the arrogant suitor offering the tiny, delicate children a fruit with a twisted smile on their face. He'll kill them. He will kill them, slowly and brutally for their crime of scaring his precious children-
Though he'd always prided himself on his speed, the one thing he'd always had over Wukong, he stood frozen as a golden blur descended on the suitor with ruby eyes and a snarl, the blur reaching his cubs just moments before he rose from his shadows.
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Wukong didn't think.
He reacted.
He heard the twins his and Macaque's cubs call out in fear, their tiny voices trembling with terror at an unknown threat, and his body just...
Reacted.
His feet pushed him forward, shooting him through the air and leaving a crater behind in the polished stone he'd been standing on moments before, his footsteps leaving a trail of broken, shattered stone behind him from the strength he could no longer mind to control as he moved towards the danger with his mind blank.
He shot towards the person cornering his the cubs, his lips drawn into a snarl and his glamour disappearing in his protective rage.
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Macaque remembered how Wukong fought.
Knew the fancy moves and powerful hits and that staff by heart. How when he got serious, that sunlight bright arrogant smile dropped away to reveal a cold, hard facade that could make the gods themselves tremble with terror.
This wasn't anything he'd seen from Wukong before.
Claws and fangs and vicious tearing and snarls, a roar to his powerful voice that promised death and damnation to the person that dared to cross him, and Wukong seemed to be deaf to the screams of the perpetrator as they futilely tried to fight back against their attacker.
All he seemed to be focused on was getting rid of the threat to the twins, and all Macaque could do was stare at the King who brutally defended his children.
Wukong barely pulled back from his rage moments before he broke his vows, growling deeply in his chest as he stood over the broken and shredded body of the would-be suitor, his claws flexing like he was fighting not to end the threat permanently.
Human promises vs animalistic protectiveness given form.
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Wukong felt the blood rage drain from his eyes as a growl rumbled in his chest, the chips of stone and dust around him shaking across the ground from the sheer power behind the noise.
The Suitor was utterly broken in every form of the word, missing limbs and chunks of flesh from teeth and claws, the last arm they had was twisted in a strange and unnatural angle, and their blood was splattered across the floor.
But they still breathed.
Technically, he didn't break his vows.
There was no killing blow.
But if they succumbed to their wounds, that would simply be the law of nature every demon and Celestial follows.
He turned swiftly, red and gold eyes hunting for the cubs that he had fought for, and breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted two sets of tiny eyes glowing in the shadows, staring at him with confusion, hope, and a bit of fear.
Wukong kneeled for the first time in centuries, a soft coo coming from his mouth, broken and in long disuse from the centuries he hadn't spoken in his native tongue. His throat felt confused by the command to make the noise, shaking as he struggled to make the soothing sound and reassure the tiny, terrified things that hid from him. He cleared his throat and tried again, cooing and hooting softly to the cubs, reassuring them "Safe, the danger is gone, I'm here, nothing will hurt you" as he reached out arms for a hold he knew would get him attacked if Macaque ever found out-
He froze, staring down at his arms.
His hands and forearms were covered in blood.
Crimson blood that dripped slowly to the broken ground, that stained his fur, that would surely stain the delicate cubs who don't need or deserve to be frightened any more, he should back off and find Macaque, find their parent who deserves to comfort and sooth the small children, he felt shame and disgust for himself filling his very soul as he tried to pull back his arms-
A tiny hand touches his finger, and he stares at the digits wrapped tightly around his own.
His eyes slowly look up, and couldn't help his stare at the braver twin that tightly held his finger, the smaller one clinging to his back as they both shook and cooed.
"Scared."
"So scary."
"You made scary thing go away?"
Wukong swallowed thickly around the bloody tears that burned his eyes, but kept them back as he slowly nodded.
These cubs don't deserve to see any more blood today.
The nod seemed to be all they were waiting for before he had them in his arms, their faces buried in his throat as fearful cooes and whimpers filled his ears and their tiny fists held tightly to his fur.
He knew he was going to get beaten and screamed at for this.
He knew Macaque probably already saw or heard.
Knew he knew that he was touching their the cubs.
But he couldn't help it.
He quickly wiped his hands on his pants to get rid of as much blood as possible before touching the two, stroking their small backs with his fingers as broken reassurances spilled out from him, his body instinctively curling around them in a protective, impenetrable shield.
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Macaque stared.
Stared at his children.
His precious cubs.
The only lights in his dark world.
Stared as they clung to Wukong their father for comfort instead of slipping into the shadows to find him.
Stared as they allowed him to touch them after the terrifying display.
Stared as the proud King's eyes welled with bloody tears he wouldn't let fall, stared as he spoke in their native tongue like he'd almost forgotten how to do so, stared as he soothed them and reassured them in the softest voice he'd ever heard that the twins were safe, stared as he carefully tried to clean his hands before daring to touch them, stared as he curled around them like he could protect them from all the bad things in the world by coating himself in blood.
And felt that small, broken, mutilated, half dead thing hidden in the deepest, darkest corners of his heart tremble.
He punched his own chest with a snarl.
But he still simply watched the three as broken cooes and hoots came from the King, trying to reply to every noise the twins made like they were proclamations from Buddha Themself.
He'd deal with Wukong later.
For now, his children wanted to be soothed, and they wanted to be soothed by the one that defended them.
He'd wait, he's patient.
He should probably leave, or at least sink a bit deeper into the shadows so Wukong wouldn't sense him.
But he didn't.
He simply stayed there.
And watched, all the while ignoring the small, shadowed, cursed part of his heart that trembled and fought to come back to life.