Chapter Text
Fly very close to the sea, the sea breeze will sink you with the weight of the feathers; fly very close to the sun, and you will lose your wings to fall into the sea; whatever you do, you will drown.
But, what could an Icarus do but fly towards the sun?
What could a moon do but dance around the sun?
Before Macaque met Wukong, he traveled the world.
He never stayed in any one place, always leaving towns behind as quickly as he could when he didn't find something interesting, since he didn't feel like he belonged there or anyone. Eventually, thanks to this, Macaque found legends and stories, different creatures and even other gods.
Sure, it wasn't as exciting as it became in future times, most of the time it was merchants chatting among themselves, adults entertaining children, and at best, it was a man on high ground narrating a perfectly memorized story ( although these also used to be very tedious due to the amount of repeated information). It was in this last form that Macaque heard this legend.
Although, this was a long time ago, in a town where it didn't even happen and in a language that he didn't fully understand, but beyond the names of people he didn't know their importance, he understood.
A father and son were imprisoned in a tower by a king; the father created a pair of wings of wax and feathers to escape together, but not before warning his son not to fly the right way, he would perish; the son so jovial with the thrill of flying, he decided to launch himself to fly towards the sun only to plummet into the sea-
Liu'er snorted and turning around, he left as soon as the narrator recounted the father's grief before continuing with the rest of the story, father and son weren't even the main characters, just a spin-off.
The monkey couldn't help but frown at the story, for him, the young son couldn't be more stupid for wanting to be near the sun when he knew that it would bring him down, just because of the warm feeling it gave him. And Mihou knew that this was nonsense because, even though he didn't know how the world was perceived to these mortals, they had ten suns that almost burned the world, so yes, the shadow ape usted to had an idea how horrible the sun could be.
The macaque wrinkled his nose as he thought arrogantly how he would never do something as stupid as what that mortal had done, young and stupid mortals.
But Liu'er Mihou would never have realized the wrongness of his thoughts until he met Sun Wukong.
Sun Wukong was like a summer breeze, refreshing, warm, and exciting.
The orange monkey greeted him with emotion when he arrived at Flower and Fruit Mountain, he didn't even seem upset that the macaque was a stranger, instead he grabbed his hand and gave him a tour of the island between jokes and laughter, feeling the macaque in the full youth of his age. The king's smile shone like the sunbeams, his embraces were warm, and his laughter was more melodious than birdsong.
It was beautiful and warm, Macaco just wanted to be closer to him.
It was intoxicating, always drawing him no matter what: when he convinced him to stay on the mountain (that he belonged there); when he had to stay while he watched Wukong leaving for new things (but he always comes back); when he lured him into the brotherhood with the dream of going against the emperor (but Wukong was always by his side); when they fought against the sky (but Wukong would make it, right? He promised him an eternity together…).
Macaco felt in the clouds.
Icarus felt the warmth of the sun before falling into the sea.
“The Great Sage, he’s gotta drag everyone else into his mess.”
He always knew, didn't he? Even centuries later, even with most of the story erased from his head, the moral was still there and Macaque ignored it, no, he denied it.
There was always a justification on his part every time the situation seemed to get worse, no matter how many times he saw the signs, he couldn't help but fly for so long near the sun and it was time for him to fall.
That's what Mihou thought with some mockery as he watched the great sage rise above him before throwing him into the Diyu, chained deep in the underworld.
And there, Macaque promised never to let himself be burned by the sun again. He wasn't going to be persuaded by the cold breeze either, but who was he to ignore a free pass?
Now he knew better, this time he was going to destroy Wukong, and what better way to do it than to use his so 'precious' successor? And there he met Mk.
Mk was something unknown to Macaque, who even in those early days couldn't decide if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
The boy used to look at him as if he dangled the moon, with an admiration that at first was addictive to the ebony fur monkey, made him stand with a pleasant pride on his chest and he felt attracted by the boy's warmth. It was a feeling similar to what it was like to be with Wukong, but different, more forgiving, kinder, more naive.
Of course, Macaque knew that this wasn’t going to last forever, no matter how different this sun was, now the shadow monkey knew how to recognize it for what it was and he wouldn’t let himself get so close to it, a sun was a sun, and this was confirmed for him when the boy made his final attack. It wasn’t a fatal one like the one Wukong had made but he continued to be with an overwhelming force, burning and without mercy, just like the king.
The macaque stayed away, at least in principle, but when he saw his opportunity he couldn't help but take it, tormenting the boy was the closest thing to defeating Wukong, it was the closest thing to rising to the level of the sun and hitting him in the face, but something happened-
At that time, the ebony-furred monkey didn't notice the change, until Mk started talking to him about his problems, comparing himself to... Macaque himself? The monkey felt about to sneer, Mk couldn't be the warrior, he couldn't be an Icarus; the boy was a hero, a sun, bringing down the people around him when they were no longer useful, reminding them how inferior they really were, caring for no one but himself, the boy didn't even realize that his friends wasn’t found!
But he saw something in that fight that sparked something in him, he saw… pain, a pain of self-loathing, self-loathing for not being the best, for not being enough. It was sad, like seeing the death of a star, all that innocence of spring gone, all the scorching heat of summer disappearing little by little, only leaving an autumn where everything was slowly dying.
So... he decided to leave the boy alone, there was no point in continuing to torment the young man. That is until he got too low and that cursed witch caught him in her cold icicle trap and, he supposes he must have seen it coming, to be honest.
A bit of persecution here, a bit of sarcasm there, a bit of heroic words, almost freezing/mystical fire, and a speech about friendship-
And that was what ended up permeating Macaque.
"Heroes don't leave their friends behind."
He wasn't even sure if he felt those words so strongly for all the times he felt abandoned by Wukong, or why he had left the king behind, but he knew something, he couldn't abandon MK.
He didn't think it would be enough, he knew it would never be enough, but he could help the boy with a few little pushes here and there, helping to wriggle out of a frozen king, taking him to his friend, bringing the bony one's faithful dog, etc. He knows that he could never do anything against Lady Bone Demon, he wasn't strong or powerful enough to defeat the witch, but he could be useful-
"Then don't be a hero, be a warrior."
And… just being him is necessary, he was enough, he was wanted.
The world was freezing to death, and yet the boy could glow with unmatched warmth in a dying landscape, he was so nice and he just wanted to get close to him until he burned.
And so he did, he fought Wukong once more with the ending being the same.
He wasn't surprised, he knew what would happen, he would always fall, but this time he had a prize: someone cried for him.
Mk hugged him so tightly as if he were going to disappear (that's really how Macaque felt), hunching over him as if he were something precious, sobbing fat tears of a pitifully sad expression and babbling terrified (which he couldn't understand) while resisting being comforted by his friends who were just embarrassed around him. Macaque adored this, he knew he must feel bad for being happy that the child cried, but no one had held him before as if they didn't want to lose him, he also felt so happy to see someone worried about him, that made his last moments filled with warmth before falling into the cold of the Diyu.
'It was a good life, I suppose.' He thought as tendrils resembling his magic rose from his own shadow to entwine around him. ‘Well, at least it was a better ending.’ The vines began to discharge painful energy through Macaque's soul, but unlike last time, he wasn't fighting, he felt whole for the first time, maybe and just maybe, he was ready to move on and be reborn into a new life.
But that goes to hell when a hooded man comes with an offer of revenge against Wukong.
'Who am I to turn down a free pass? I can't believe that after all this fiasco with Lady Bone Demon they think I won't do the same.' Macaque thought while he could feel the burning of being alive again. 'I guess some of you can't hear a moral.'
After all, what could an Icarus do but fly towards the sun?