#lmk fanfic
Summary: “You?! Why would I trust you? You have brought me nothing but failure. Time and time again; nothing but disappointment!”
His father’s words might have been a result of his possession by the White Bone Spirit, but whether or not they were his true thoughts, Red Son vows to prove them wrong. To do so he seeks to attain a power strong enough to destroy his father’s immortal enemy. After all, he’d much rather throw fire at his problems.
Word Count: 2113
Ratings/Warnings: Teen and up; injury, burns, angst and hurt/comfort, toxic thoughts caused by toxic parents, panic attacks, abuse.
Notes: Red Son and MK finally talk
Credits: Big thanks to @painted-arachnidand@simplyfornardo for helping me bounce ideas off of them. And also thanks to @lemonsqueazie for providing me with “Journey to the West” lore. I don’t know much about the original novel or other iterations, but I still tried to keep some things compliant with the lore. You should check all of them out, since they’re really great content creators with neat ideas!
———-
Red Son catches his breath as he looks over the city with the imposing mech still nestled in its midst and signs of a fight surrounding it. He didn’t mean to run like a coward. His legs just took him away without thinking. As he calms down he thinks back to what he had just witnessed.
When he first met Sandy, he admits that he thought the man could be dangerous. But after weeks with him, he had come to know him as soft and gentle and kind. Red Son supposes he was still those things. But for the first time since Red Son knew him, Sandy’s intimidating form was exactly that - large and intimidating, and definitely able to punch a hole through a powerful mech.
And angry.
Out of anything Red Son wasn’t expecting that.
A part of him feels almost betrayed. Why didn’t Sandy tell him? The large man was always a paragon of self-control and tranquility. For him to be… not that… left Red Son feeling like the rug was pulled under him, and what was once a single bit of stability in his life for the past month or so, was not so stable and in-control after all.
But he did tell him, didn’t he? He had mentioned anger management. And then there was part of that conversation with Pigsy that Red Son had overheard. Red Son knew. He just didn’t see. And it wasn’t until now that Red Son could see how much Sandy understood what he has been going through. Despite the fear and the hurt, something in his chest tugs at that thought, and it is as if it is pulling him in the direction back to the city.
Red Son shakes the thoughts away, takes a steadying breath, and turns back to the mech.
—-
There is finally a lull in the pulses of energy that were being taken from MK, and he’s finally able to catch his breath. He supposes Sandy stopped attacking the mech due to it healing up and not mattering anyways, but he can still hear quiet echoes of a fight going on outside.
He tugs halfheartedly at the webs holding him, with no results. He’s having trouble staying awake, but he wants to fight back. It’s just that a lot of the fight has left him. Both physically and mentally.
So he’s not pleased when he sees Red Son pop out of some sort of drain in the ground and enter the room.
“Red Son,” he growls, which is about all he can muster.
Red Son looks around surreptitiously before coming over to him and begins to pull at the webs holding him. MK stares at him, dumbly. It takes a few moments of hearing Red Son grumbling angrily as he tugs at his binds before MK snaps out of a momentary confusion and asks, “What are you doing?!”
“What does it look like, Noodle Boy? I’m trying to get you out of here so you can stop the Spider Queen and save your styuuuupid friends. And the city, too, I guess.”
MK blinks, unevenly. “Maybe I’m more out of it than I thought… Are you saying you’re trying to… save me?!”
“Maybe? Yes! SHUT UP! I’m trying to concentrate.”
MK squints his eyes; brain trying and failing to make a connection. “Why?!”
“Ugh!” Red Son throws his head back with an exasperated sigh, but doesn’t stop in his attempts at breaking the webs. “Because! I, tch, need you to stop Spider Queen! And I would be very much put out if you all died.” As if not wanting that statement to hang in the air, he quickly changes subjects. “This isn’t working. Maybe if I try to mess with the main controls…” He goes over to the machinery adjacent to MK and tries tapping some buttons and messing with some wires.
MK, still frustrated with the lack of explanation, pushes further. “Why do you care? Why are you even here?! Is this some big trick? If you really wanted me out of here, why aren’t you even using your powers?!” Red Son’s back is to MK as he works on the machines. With each question he seems to get more angry and haphazard in his attempts to mess with the controls. MK finally yells again, in hopes of getting an answer, “Red Son!”
“Aaarrghhh!” Red Son yells angrily and slams his fists on the machine. This causes some sort of feedback as energy zaps out of the machine, and he’s thrown across the room and skids across the ground back towards where MK is. He lets out an angry grunt as he lands on his back, but MK isn’t sure if it’s because of the machine or the pain or his usual anger. He gets his answer when Red Son finally yells out a response.
“I don’t have my powers! I told you! I can’t even control a stupid stove when it goes out of control.” He holds out his hand and MK can clearly see a light burn on it, and he makes a connection to the earlier incident with Mei. Red Son continues, “I haven’t been able to shoot fire or anything ever since my father took the Samadhi Fire from me. And that was after I tried to please him by bringing him the Monkey King, which it turns out he didn’t like. And then I tried to be,” here he makes a disgusted sound, “… good. And I tried to make nice with you all. Which it turns out that you didn’t like.” MK frowns a bit at that comment. “And now I’m trying to fix what I did before, when I made a deal with Spider Queen back when I got the Fire in the first place.” He starts frantically waving his arms in the air. “And I’m trying to save you but everything keeps blowing up in my face!! LITERALLY!!!” He heaves a tired sigh, his arms flopping back to the ground, and doesn’t make any move to try to get up.
MK stares at Red Son, who isn’t looking at him in return. It’s like he wasn’t even yelling at him, but just yelling in general. But MK listened. And suddenly some things clicked into place. “You… you’re telling the truth.”
Red Son makes a frustrated noise. “Yeah, but what does it matter now? I can’t be a hero or a villain. I spent so long trying to please my father, I don’t even know what to do.” He again raises his hands above him, but this time slowly to look at them, pondering out loud. “It’s hard trying to be yourself when you don’t know who you are.”
MK finds himself nodding along to that last part. “If that ain’t the truth.”
Red Son clenches his fists and sits up sharply, pounding them on the ground on either side of him. “Oh sure, now you’re pretending to understand me! Now, when I’m completely useless, and you’re all tied up, you actually listen.” His fists grow slack again, and he hunches over. “You don’t understand how pitiful it is that the son of the Demon Bull King not only can’t live up to his father’s name, but can’t even help his enemies.”
MK’s eye twitches slightly. That struck a chord. The side of his lip quivers up in a half smile. “Hah,” he barks out a quiet laugh with no mirth. “You think I don’t understand what it’s like to have to live up to someone else?!” He laughs a bit more, weakly. “I’m the Monkie Kid! I have to live up to the Monkey KING,” he emphasizes. “And look at how I’m doing. I nearly got the Monkey King killed! And even when I literally have all of his powers and am invincible, I still managed to get captured and am being used as some sort of battery to help destroy the city! If I get out of this somehow, I doubt the Monkey King will want me to be his successor anymore.”
Red Son finally turns to MK and scoffs. “Oh you’ll be fine! Your friends will still want you around because, I don’t know, you all care about each other or something? Sandy even kept me around for who knows what reason, and I’m an enemy!” Then he gestures at himself. “Furthermore, I’m the one who started this whole thing. If you really want someone to blame for this mess, it’s me, not you! You’re good at this.” He meets MK’s eyes, and emphasizes, “Too good.” After a beat he lowers his head dejectedly, and rubs his face. “I thought if I made things right, I could maybe be a part of that. But I’m not even good enough to be at my father’s side, much less any of yours.”
MK mulls over the exchange. He thinks back to all of Red Son’s interactions with him and his friends recently. With the sudden context of him not being able to use his powers, his relationship with his father, and his current actions, a lot of things started making sense. Now that he thinks about it, if MK had paid a bit more attention, he’d probably have been able to understand better. He just hadn’t wanted to. After some silence, he starts slowly. “Yeah, maybe you are to blame, a little bit…” Red Son further hunches his shoulders. "But maybe I was wrong about you, Red Son,” MK continues, “And I think I was just too angry at you… and at myself, to really listen to what you had to say.”
Red Son’s head snaps back up, and stares at him, wide eyed. His eyes seem to search MK’s own, also appearing to be mulling over the conversation. But whatever is going on in his head, he must have found an answer, as he recovers and says. “Well, I know a bit about how that feels.”
“I guess we’ve got some things in common then.” MK manages a half-hearted grin.
“Ugh! Don’t get all touchy feely on me, Noodle Boy.” Red Son grimaces.
MK smiles a bit more genuinely than he’s had in a while.
“Well, I definitely understand not feeling good enough. And if you want…” He worries his lip between his teeth, debating the decision he’s about to make. He feels it’s the right one. “…If we do get out of this, then, I think I’d be okay if you still worked at Pigsy’s shop.”
“Really?!”
“Yeah, well I don’t think Sandy would be happy if you randomly left. And you did risk your neck coming back here. And…” MK wished he could move because he really wants to fidget from this awkward exchange. But he’s glad that it feels honest, and not so filled with distrust and cynicism anymore. It feels more like himself that way. “And in the end, I’d rather be friends than enemies,” he finishes quickly.
Red Son relaxes, almost imperceptibly. “Indeed.“ He lifts up his chin and tries to sound pompous, but there is an underlying vulnerability there, as he says "I would prefer that arrangement as well.” He chances a look at MK who flashes him an even bigger, though no less tired, smile, to which Red Son dramatically rolls his eyes and groans. But he looks back at MK with a half-smile playing on the corner of his lip.
Red Son then takes a deep breath, picks himself up, and dusts himself off, a lot less harried than he seemed before. “Well, none of that is going to mean anything if I can’t get you out of here. Let me try again. Maybe if I try picking these apart, strand by strand, it’ll work…” He begins to reach towards the webs holding MK.
There is a small buzz, like static, that MK feels. Oh no. He knows what’s coming
“Red Son, wait-!” he warns, before Red Son gets too close, and his voice is cut off by a surge of energy shooting through him. All MK can do is scream in pain.
Yet again the mech is taking energy from him and he feels himself grow weaker and weaker. There’s a buzzing in his ears, but it’s accompanied by what sounds like a voice. He attempts to see through eyes squinted in pain. Red Son is there and his mouth is moving, saying something; calling him?
“Noodle Boy, stay with me! You are not allowed to go to sleep now, do you hear me?!!”
Things begin to fade and the edges of his vision darken. As he loses consciousness, Red Son’s voice echoes in his ears.
“Noodle Boy! Noodle Boy!… MK!”
Then nothing.
