Journey to Somewhere New (Sun Wukong x reader)

Chap. 22 - Domestic life, just as adventurous (1)

After letting the remaining steam out of his system, complaining about both Macaque and his younger self, Monkey's been quite pensive as our two protagonists were approaching a large city in the distance.
"Hey," he finally said, making the both of them stop walking. "about what you said earlier, about how you wanna follow Tripitaka's footsteps to try and reach enlightenment."
"Ah, uh..." (Y/n) looked to the side, a bit embarrassed, and waved her hand. "Forget it, it's whatever-"
"No, hold on." he raised a hand. "If doing that is what you wanna do, go ahead, I won't stop you. But I just want you to understand..." his gaze wandered for a second, trying to find the words. "Tripitaka...didn't have a fun life. Everything had to be a lesson of morality *to* him, or *from* him. He never played games - sometimes I had to force him to just play chess -"
'Geez, even my father was looser than this.'
"-never partied, all of it to keep his mind focused on his pilgrimage. He literally was not allowed to have fun."

(Y/n) thought for a moment before frowning slightly.
"What are you trying to do?" she folded her arms. "Are you trying to talk me out of this because, what, I won't be fun so you won't like me anymore?"
"What? No! I'll love you forever!"
She blushed, not expecting that. He continued.
"I just want you to know what you're getting yourself into. So knowing that," he took a step closer. "are you sure you want to try and follow his footsteps?"
She looked down, pursuing her lips. She remembered what Tripitaka said about giving up on the physical world, and despite what she said and believed...
'I want to be able to help. I don't want to be someone who has to be protected.'

"I can't just rely on powers that are emotion-activated. And I don't think I can find a way to channel..." she looked down at her hand. "whatever that was."
"There may, you don't know."
"It's not like Tripitaka's book could teach me anything about glowing fists that give you super strength! Going with the other more certain option? Yeah I'm sure!"
He blinked twice, there was more frustration in her voice that he expected. She let out a little 'ah', as if she noticed it too, and glanced to the side. He sighed through his nose.
"Okay then." he nodded.

He kept walking, his hands behind his head. For a moment, (Y/n) was afraid she upset him, but then he spoke again.
"And now that I think about it, if you do reach enlightenment, then you'll become immortal. I'm fine with that."
"Immortal?!" she exclaimed, following him.
He laughed.
"Got a problem with that?"
"N-nothing, I guess. It's just...weird to imagine."
"You get used to it."
Her gaze wandered, thinking.

"Say, how does it feel being immortal?"
"Just another reason as to why I'm amazing." he smiled.
"No but, how is it different from a mortal life?"
He thought for a moment.
"To me, not much. It's just one very long life - Like think about it:" he looked at her as he tapped his temple. "As long as you don't die, you're technically immortal. It's pretty much the same."
(Y/n) frowned, trying to understand his logic. He chuckled.
"Bit of Wukong wisdom for ya."
"I don't think-" she sighed with a smile, thinking this wasn't arguing about.
'Plus, I wouldn't want to be a downer again.'
As they kept walking, she looked at her open hand again, her smile fading.
'It's not like I want to do this. If I could find another way to channel my powers without having to give up everything I like then...'
She sighed again, readjusting the bag on her shoulders.

.
"Woah!" she exclaimed once they were at the city's entrance. "This is much larger than I thought it was!"
Monkey, turned into his human form, chuckled. As soon as they stepped through the gates however, he turned back to his demon form. (Y/n) gasped.
"Wha-?!" he looked at himself. "What the hell?!"
He was then surrounded by guards and she immediately tried to step in and explain that he didn't mean any harm. And they actually did leave them alone.
"You must be new here so you don't know." one of them explained and pointed at the gate, it was ornamented with crystals which, on further inspection, were charged with power. "The local shamans have put these all around the city a while ago, with these, no demon or human can turn into anything for more than half-an-hour. It's a safety precaution."
"Oh~ I see!" she nodded.
"Man, humans are getting clever with that stuff." Monkey said as he looked closer at them.