Taken || Lego Monkei Kid

Little Flower

Illness was never a concept in Sun Wukong's mind. Once, long ago, when he was still mortal, he could faintly recall a time he had been sick. His nose had been stuffed, and his eyes heavy with exhaustion. There was a warmth to his cheeks he couldn't explain, making his body strangely heavy. All of this lasted perhaps a day, maybe two. His own immune system taking care of him with little worry.

Once he had stolen his many many immortalities from the Celestial Realm, such a burden was nothing but an illusion to his youth.

So someone explain to him how in all these years, he's never feared it until now.

With his son born, their lives were meant to be joyful. Filled with happiness and spent in leisure now that the war was over.

The last thing he hadn't expected was illness to take hold of his child.

It had struck the first few months Qi Xiaotian had entered the world. Suddenly, with no warning, showing in the bright red color of the baby's cheeks. The child was completely bedridden, laid across his parent's spacious bed- taking up hardly any room at all with his tiny body.

The flush of the child's cheeks hadn't died down, warm beneath its touch. It had been days now, no amount of ice or cool wash clothes were able to truly break the fever and keep it at bay.

Such an extended amount of time was nothing to an immortal, but everything to a mortal infant. Fevers that delayed this long were bound to cause other health complications. Liu'er and Wukong were cracking under the pressure. Arguing and bickering, breaking into tears and consoling the other enough to focus back up.

"Xiaotian.... Good boy..." Wukong sat closely at the child's side, refusing to budge for even a moment of break. He held Qi Xiaotian's hand from dawn until dusk, hushing his son with soft words and softer lullabies.

Liu'er returned to the room after a few short hours, no good news in his wake. He couldn't bare to be gone for long, so his search for aid was limited. He consulted Princess Iron Fan and her doctors. Several celestial and demonic practitioners under her family's control, but none could help even describe what was wrong with their son.

It was like his very soul wasn't sitting well within his body.

They worried it might be due to him being a stone monkey. Perhaps not taking enough time within his stone, or just his birth in general? They had no means of knowing exactly how long he had been on his own in those first few precious hours after emerging from the stone. Surely less than a day, but perhaps the elements had harmed him in some unforeseen way?

Or maybe it was just how it was with Stone Monkey's. That Macaque and Wukong were perhaps just lucky they were born into this world with no complications.

"Mihou..." Wukong drew him from his thoughts with a soft call, holding out his arm. The darker monkey moved quietly around the bed to join Wukong where he sat, leaning against his mate as the other wrapped a strong arm around his torso. Dark circles kissed the underside of his eyes, giving weight to the exhaustion the two felt. It had been days since either dare close their eyes, worried their child might just breathe their last breath if they did so.

Quietly observing the delicate lift and fall of their baby's chest- His breathing is more like sharp wheezes. How was this fair? How had they worked so hard for this, gaining strength through brutal training and unbearable pain, to be so helpless in the face of something unseen?

Liu'er heart was unsteady. "Xiaotian..." he held his hand out to touch his baby. A weak and unsteady throb of the child's heart lay beneath Liu'er's searching fingertips. A heartbeat that sustained their entire universe. "Wukong," he whispered. Desperation lingered in his voice, "What are we to do..?" the pit in his heart was indescribably horrid.