castaside | [Heart Game] From the ashes we can build

Red Son looks at MK.

Sees how he's even shorter.

"You two talked about it, but do you still think there's a ranking system?" He asked.

MK looked back.

"No. It's different flavors but you love all the flavors. Saya is a flavor. I'm a flavor. Macaque is a flavor. But you love us all in that own special way. Saya helped me figure that out."

Leave it to MK to finally understand this open love through food.

Red Son paused.

And then...he snorted and laughed. "Did she really get you to understand it through food?"

Was that REALLY all it took?

"I mean...nooooo. She tried to use math. And...you know me. Math and my brain don't get along," MK said with a small shrug.

"But I kinda took what she was saying and uh...put it to food. I get food," MK said with a nod.

Red Son snorted. "I see. A shame, you both do love food," he said.

"...it is apt though. I get different things from your love," he said. "Its like saying what do I want more, my favorite dessert, or my favorite appetizer."

MK chuckled. "Yes but she hates making it." The noodle boy shrugged.

"Why not both? Or all three. You get your favorite appetizer, your favorite noodles, and then your favorite dessert. Then you're all worn out." He winked.

Red Son's hair crackles at that. "Yes. Well. That IS the idea. See, you're just a well balanced meal!"

MK grinned at the fire crackling.

"We can talk more about that when we're out of here. Because this place? Not the place. Alright. I'll get the sack. Then you get the bottle? Then we'll figure out what to put in the void."

"Yes, yes, all right," he said, a hand over his fancy, the other waving in the air. Before he goes to pick up the bottle.

MK went over to grab the empty sack!

You get the sense of a life built on memories, more painful than not. Of working and working clay soil until it turns arable, then using that pain to grow crops. Meager yes, but yours. You cherish them and you need them, but--

But all the same, sometimes you want to forget. You wonder if it wouldn't be better for yourself, for everyone you love, if you vanished. So you couldn't hurt them again. They deserve not to ever be hurt again, and that's not a promise you can make.

You hate that feeling. You refuse to entertain it. But it's there, and it sickens you.

MK shook with the emotions. They were so sad. So hurt. And yet MK resonated with them even a little. Not wanting to hurt people anymore. To stay away and keep them safe. He hugged that sack to him. He looked over to Red Son.

"...I think...you should feel this one. It's not happy but I think you should feel it too. It's important..."

Red Son looks over. "...ominous," he said, looking back at the bottle. Its not a great feeling from it either. But...

"Maybe you should feel this one too."

"Messed up tradies, I guess," MK took the bottle at the same time he put the sack in Red Son's hand. The feeling washed over him and he gasped. Oh. OH.

Realization was clear in MK's eyes. Big deep character defining realization.

"Holy Sage..."

"Messed up tradies," Red Son said, taking the sack and-

Oh.

Its.

Well, the feeling isn't REALLY a surprise. He's had moments like that, wondering if he's really worth all the trouble he seems to cause. Not quite to the point of wanting to disappear, he's not so selfless, but he can see the leap.

It hurts.

To think of him seeing himself like that.

But that is saddening, but MK seems to have made a realization. Good. He had hoped so. "Are you all right?"

MK looked at Red Son. He still had the bag clutched tight to his chest.

"...I'm his North Star. He said that. All these memories about his darkness. He's scared to go back to that. To how he was when...we first met? And way before he met Monkey King. I didn't fully...I didn't get it. I didn't get how important that was. I...Mei is right. Sometimes I am so dumb."

MK gently folded the sack and put it back down on the floor.

"He's counting on me to keep him from...sliding back. And I...I was such a jerk. I really fucked up, Red Son. I'm gonna make it up to him. I will. I just...oh wow I fucked up."

"...well, Dragon Girl is right," he said. Sorry MK, but she is right. You are so dumb.

Red Son reaches out to take the bottle and set it down carefully. Then he's going to take MK into his arms. "You inspire people. You draw them in. You help guide him to be somewhere better than the bitter resentment. Just like you guide me to be better than just the aching loneliness. You were always that kind of person."

MK didn't resist the pull. He looked up at Red Son, the anxiety and confusion clear on his face.

"But why? I thought for like the longest time I was just a noodle delivery boy. I don't...get it. You all keep saying I'm a light in the dark. I just don't...I didn't get how...important that was. Or powerful, I guess. I just...why me?"

"Noodle Boy, if I knew that, I might have actually stood a chance against your magnetic pull," Red Son said dryly.

He sighs, reaching up to caress his cheek. "Its just...you. That right mix of earnestness and standing firm and optimism and probably the willingness to kick our asses when we need it. You manage to find just the right words when we need them most. The right act of kindness when we don't expect it. Its just..." He shrugged and chuckled. "The MK Effect."

MK leaned into the touch. His own effect. One he didn't really understand or knew he had.

"I just...I don't want to let any of you down. Especially knowing that. That scares me a lot."

"You aren't letting us down, Noodle Boy," Red Son said, thumb tracing under his eye. "If anything, we're the ones constantly worried about letting you down. Straying too far on the path we chose because we want to keep seeing you smile."

MK smiled a little. He rubbed his cheek against that hand and sniffled.

"You aren't letting me down. None of you are. I...sure. Things kinda went bad here like this. But it's nothing we can't fix. And...you make me proud. You and Macaque both. Like in the underground mob lab. You were amazing. You are amazing," MK said, not fully realizing he let that slip.

Red Son freezes. "Whaaaat do you mean in the mob lab?"

Oops.

"Oh. Um...I kinda saw the whole...uh infiltration mission. Thing. With you and Macaque and Wukong. In the Scroll. One time."

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