The next morning, as they ate breakfast, (Y/n) asked Ao Bing if he could teach her a bit about meditation before they part ways. Both Monkey and Nezha were offended and didn't miss expressing that. Nevertheless they both sat by one of the walls as her and Ao faced each-other. He summoned a standing bell along with a little mallet and began to rotate it around the outside rim of the bell, producing a sustained musical note. It resonated in her head and she felt her whole being vibrating, it was almost hypnotizing. She stared at it and Monkey and Nezha's eyes widen when they saw her (e/c) ones flickering with a cyan blue light. Finally, Ao hit the bell one single time and told her to close her eyes. She did. He told her what to do with a calm and collected voice, but his instruction didn't really differ from what Monkey had told her before.

"...Is it over yet?" she asked at some point.
"It can't be 'over' (Y/n), you just stop once you're ready."
She opened one of her eyes a little bit, saw that Ao had his closed, then turned to look and Monkey and Nezha. She pointed at her (e/c) eyes and tilted her head, they shook theirs. She groaned and let herself fall backwards on her back.
"How long have we been doing this?"
"Like ten minutes." Ao casually said.
She groaned again and placed her hands on her head.
"Can't you do some kind of chi flow technique that instantly makes me more powerful?"
"You can't rush those things (Y/n)." he slowly shook his head. "Practice makes perfect."
"Yeah well practice is slow!"
"You're just too impatient." Monkey said. "Even I had to work years and years to get my powers."
She just frowned in a pout.

"Your mind is too crowded." Ao stood up and walked up to her. "You need to learn how to focus."
"I am focusing though!"
"Not hard enough."
She glared at Monkey as he shrugged.
"Am I supposed to not think about anything?" she asked with a hint of frustration.
"That's impossible. Only think of what's important." Ao said.
"But what *is* important?"
"...I can't say for sure, it all depends on the person."
She groaned.
"Forget it." she mumbled as she stood up, then she smiled at him with furrowed eyebrows. "I'm sorry I bothered you, thank you so much for giving me a bit of your time."
"That's all right, I did hear you were-" he almost laughed but covered his mouth with his long sleeve. "a bad kid. Skipping class and such."
She frowned and glared at Monkey who cackled while slapping his knee. Nezha punched him in her honor and a cat fight started between them.

"(Y/n) are you sure you don't wanna ditch the monkey and come with us?" Nezha asked once they were all ready to go their separate ways.
She chuckled while Monkey sent him daggers.
"Nezha, we have othee missions to attend to in Heaven." Ao Bing said. "We're already running behind schedule."
"Right." she leaned closer to him and whispered. "Plus I don't wanna leave him alone, he'd be lost without me."
While they chuckled and said goodbye. Ao went up to Monkey and asked, also in a hushed tone:
"Are you sure you don't want me to talk to him?"
"Ha! The old man can interfere with my business when I'm on death row!" he exclaimed with a smug grin before walking away. "Come on (Y/n)!"

Our two protagonists weren't out of the mountains yet. Looking at the environment, (Y/n) was reminded that they were in a completely new part of the country, a wilder forest: there were no paths, the trees were taller, the fauna was different even the ground was more muddy. Meanwhile, Monkey was humming a tune and walking in a nonchalant manner.
"What are you singing?" she eventually asked.
"One of the hottest singles in Flower-Fruit Mountain."
"Ooo~. Back in my village, we're not really caught up on what's popular, especially music-wise."
"Well don't you worry," he pressed his finger on his temple, smiling widely. "I got a whole playlist in this big brain of mine!" he then raised his fist in the air. "Monkey King, King of Partying is back for another lesson!"
She laughed. What followed was a rather weird singing lesson, the songs were catchy but they were in his original monkey language and, according to him, she was butchering the words.
"I am literally just repeating what you're saying."
"Yeah and that's the problem!" he exclaimed, louder than usual.
She frowned, her eyes squinting in confusion. Monkey seemed really agitated by the way she spoke his native language, his face was all red and he couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. Did she accidentally say something offensive? When asked, he said no, so she was just even more confused. He added that teaching her how to speak monkey would take way too time. He still taught her the melodies and such.

After a while, a white and green light shone in her eyes, making her blink rapidly, she stopped and looked towards the source of the light: a little object on a patch of grass reflecting the sunlight . Curious, she went to pick it up. Monkey noticed what she was doing and also stopped walking.
"What is this...?" she asked herself as she looked at the object from different angles. "It's very pretty. This is a scale right?" she showed it to him. "Pretty big fish, and why would it be in the middle of a forest?"
Monkey gasped and rushed up to her, looking at the scale with big sparkly eyes.
"This my friend is our ticket to Guan Yin's island!"
"Huh? Really?"
"This," he took her wrist and brought her hand closer to him. "is a dragon scale!"
"D-Dragon?! Is it Ao Bing's?"
"Nah that's not his color."
"So..." she looked around, excited and nervous at the same time. "there's a dragon nearby?"
"We're about to find out." he took a step back, his hands on his hips. "Naturally losing a scale is very very rare for them, so if someone was to find one, it's considered great luck. And if that someone brings it back to the one who lost it, they're granted a ride back and forth to any place of their choice."
Her eyes widen and she slowly gasped.

"That's amazing! Now we can-Wait." she raised her index. "I just realized something: You can transform right?"
"M-hmm." he nodded.
"Then...couldn't you just turn yourself into a dragon so that we could go to Guan Yin's island like it's nothing?"
"Yes I could've done that ever since I got my power back."
"Well, why didn't you? It would've bought us so much  time."
"Right, you see there's a very simple explanation for this:..."

In the distance, a group of men was passing by. The scale reflected light onto one of the men's eyes and once he looked towards the source, he froze.
"G-g-guys guys!" he hide behind a tree. "There's one right there! Take cover!"
Without question, they all hide behind trees and bushes.
"Why are we hiding?" the youngest one asked, with his fancy light armor, he stood out from the raggedy rest.
"It's already been spotted by someone."
"Well well," their leader said. "boys, get ready."
The youngest one was confused until he watched the others take out their weapons.
"Wait." he said. "You can't just kill them because they found a scale before us, we can just go talk to them."
"Oh~ little soldier boy wants to do some diplomacy."
He frowned as the other chuckled, mocking him.
"Plus, we might need to fight anyway." the leader continued. "One of them's a demon."
The young man looked over and he gasped when he saw (Y/n).

"Oh~ okay I get it." she nodded. "I'm glad you told me, it would've bothered me the whole way there."
"Yeah you're welcome. Now, let's go give that dragon their scale back."
Just as they began to walk away, an arrow was shot and landed on a tree beside them. They looked over to see a group of rogues running towards them.
"Stay behind me." Monkey stood in front of her, ready to take them on.
She nodded but still took a few steps back to keep her distance. Though Monkey had no problem winning, there were a lot of them. While he was dealing with the last few, suddenly their leader grabbed her from behind and lifted her up, unlike his goons, he stayed hidden, waiting for an opportunity to get to her while the demon was busy. She screamed and struggled, but it was no use.
"(Y/n)!" Monkey yelled, but was hit while he was distracted, even though it did nothing to him he had to focus back on the others.
Suddenly, the rogue leader was struck in the back of the head and fell unconscious. (Y/n) fell to her knees, panting. She felt a hand on her shoulder, bringing her closer to someone's chest, and looked up: a young man, more well-kept than the others. He was looking forward so she couldn't see his face, but those long hair in a high ponytail were very familiar. Monkey defeated the last rogues and turned towards the two of them. The man held her tight and pointed his sword at him. Monkey raised an eyebrow, unimpressed.
"Stay back demon." he said menacingly.
(Y/n)'s eyes widen and her expression fell into complete shock.
"Bao?"

He looked down at her. Yes, it really was him. A flow of emotions flowed through her, and by the look on his face, the feeling was mutual.
"Oh my lord Bao!" she wrapped her arms around his neck, hugging him tight. "I'm so happy to see you! I- don't worry about him he's cool." she said, feeling his tense body and knowing it was because of Monkey.
When she said that, the two men relaxed and lowered their weapons. Bao finally gave in to the hug, pressing his face on her shoulder.
"I...I-I sent a letter," he said with a little shaky voice. "and when I got an answer, they told me wh-what happened I-I thought-" he sobbed. "I thought you were gone." he whispered.
"Aww Bao~." she gently pulled back, still holding onto each-other's forearms, tears building up in her eyes. "I'm tough, you know me. Please don't cry, you'll make me cry too."
He sniffed and quickly rubbed his eyes, looking up and blinking rapidly. She chuckled.
"I have *so* much to tell you, these past weeks have been in-sane!"
"Are you..." he leaned closer. "Are you okay?" he quickly glanced at Monkey.

"Oh, right." she stood up and stood between the two of them. "Monkey, this is Bao, a childhood friend of mine-"
"Is he the one who started the fire?" he cut her off as the young man stood up.
"No that was Wu-peng. Bao, this is Monke-well I call him Monkey but, this is..." she paused, realizing the connection that her childhood friend could make with that information. "This is...Sun Wukong."
Bao's eyes widen, he looked at (Y/n), then at Monkey, then he frowned.
"*The* Sun Wukong?"
"Yeah." Monkey said with the same dry tone, not liking the look he was giving him. "If the crown and the staff are any indication."
They glared at each-other for a moment and she could sense a certain hostility between them.
"Bao," she calmly said. "Monkey saved my life more times than I can count. I would've been dead long ago if it wasn't for him."
He slightly narrowed his eyes but he didn't say anything.

"Didn't you say your friends were in the military?" Monkey asked, not looking away from him. "What exactly is *he* doing in these parts of the country?"
"My brigade has received some news and we had to leave on a mission." he explained in a monotonous tone. "Those rogues were hired by us to help look for a dragon scale, since there's been sightings of dragons around these parts."
(Y/n) looked down at the scale she was holding, then back at him.
"Where are you planning to go? What is this mission?"
Bao pursued his lips and glanced to the side. She tilted her head, what was wrong with him?
"Let's talk about this at our camp site. Leave them here," he gestured to the passed out rogues. "they're fired anyway."
He walked away, (Y/n) beside him. Monkey frowned but walked behind them as they happily talked.

"So you have your own brigade now? That's great!"
"Oh n-no I..." he scratched his slightly redder cheek, chuckling nervously. "I'm no chief, let alone a leader. Shen is the one who makes all the decisions since he's the oldest."
"Wait! Shen is here too?! And Wu-peng?!"
"Yeah, we never separated." he smiled.
She laughed in excitement.
"I can't wait to see them again!"
They smiled at each-other. Seeing her this happy, Monkey couldn't help but smile too, but it soon faded when his gaze fell on Bao.

As they walked further into the forest, the two men noticed that the muddy ground was kinda ruining (Y/n)'s shoes, which were made for walking long distance, but not in this wilderness. And because of this, she was starting to have difficulties walking.
"I don't think they'll survive this." Bao stopped. "Here, you can have my boots."
"Wha-no, it's fine." (Y/n) stopped too, placing a hand on his shoulder to prevent him from removing his shoes. "I can't have you walk bare foot in the middle of the forest."
"It's okay, I have a spare pair at the camp site."
"Oh come on, I can walk just fine."
"Or." without stopping, Monkey picked her up and gave her a piggy back ride. "There, simple solution."
As he walked passed Bao, they looked into each-other's eyes. Bao watched them for a moment before following them.

"Are you sure?" (Y/n) asked, oblivious of the short staring contest that just happened. "I don't wanna be dead weight."
"You're very much alive and breathing."
"You know that's not what I meant!" she tugged on his neck a little bit.
"Either way, even if we get attacked again, I could tear them all appart even with ten of you on my back. To me, any human is as light as a feather."
"But still, isn't it cumbersome?"
"Oh please~. If I can't use one of my arms..." he threw his staff behind him and his tail caught it. "My tail is a perfect replacement."
"Really?"
"'Course!" he proudly said while his tail rotated his staff. "It's as good as a third arm you know?"
While he was showing off some tricks, he almost hit Bao on the head but he dodged just in time. He yelped and let out a 'hey!'
"Woah Monkey!" (Y/n) hit him on the head. "Be careful would you?!"
"Sorry." he said without looking back. "You know, I might have a third arm but I can't have a third eye."
"Can't you? You can transform."
"Yeah but I can't alter my appearance, it's a whole other power. Plus y'know, two eyes is kind of my signature look."
She laughed. Bao frowned, because he was still wary of Monkey, he didn't like their complicity. Well, that and he was jealous of course.

The rest of the way went well, a few friendly conversation here and there, but it was always between (Y/n) and Bao or Monkey. The two men never talked directly to each-other but she was too happy to realize it.
Once Bao said the campsite was just up ahead, she asked Monkey to let her down, and as soon as her feet touched the ground, she gave him her bag and ran ahead with a big smile. One of her damaged shoes flew away but she didn't care, Monkey caught it. She stepped in a little clearing and stopped, panting as she looked around. A dozen of men were staring at her confused, but she didn't recognized them. She inhaled.
"Shen!!! Wu-peng!!! It's me!!!"
"Oh bro! It's getting worse!"

She looked over and her smile widen. In a corner, cutting wood, Wu-peng was staring at her with big eyes, speechless. Shen had his back turned to her, lamenting.
"I dream about her and our village and now I can hear her voice as clear as day~!"
Wu-peng slapped him and turned him around. His expression fell and (Y/n) let out a heartfelt laugh. The two men stood there for a second, hesitant to do anything. But after one step, they dropped their axes and ran up to her, holding her in a tight hug.
"Thank the Heavens above you're alive." he whispered.
"I'm so happy to see you guys too." she hugged them back.
Wu-peng took a step back, wiping his tears away. His smile dropped when he noticed that his sworn brother still hasn't let go of her.
"Let her go dude!" he gave him a friendly hit on the back. "You'll kill her for real!"
"Never!" he lifted her up, making her laugh. "She just came back to us!"
"And it was supposed to be our job." Bao said as he and Monkey caught up to them.
"Bao! Where are the rogues?"
"They tried to attack them because they found a scale before us. So now they're fired."
"Haha! Nice! Wait, 'them'?"
Monkey waved at him with a simple flick of the wrist and it was only then that Shen noticed him and gasped. To be honest, Monkey was offended by the fact that he wasn't the first one to be noticed but better late than never he guessed.

Shen stepped back while Wu-peng stood in front to protect (Y/n), the rest of the men were suddenly on their guards.
"Wait a sec." Wu-peng said after a moment, pointing at him. "Is that Sun Wukong?!"
"Oh did the staff gave it away?" he sarcastically asked.
"Oh my lord it is Sun Wukong!"
"Yeah, don't worry he's cool." (Y/n) said, pushing herself off of Shen's grasp before standing beside the monkey man. "We met a while after I left the village -crazy story- and we've been traveling together ever since." she smiled.
Shen and Wu-peng looked at each-other, large smiles slowly formed on their faces.
"No. No no no." she rushed up to them and whispered harshly as they tried not to laugh, although what she was doing made them snicker. "Shut up, shut up. Look he knows and we moved on from this. Please don't bring it up again or I'll never hear the end of it."
"So (Y/n)," Bao to the rescue as always. "how in the world did you and him end up traveling together."
"That's...a long story." she scratched her head.
"Then I don't wanna hear it!" Wu-peng wrapped an arm around her shoulder, bringing her closer to him. "If you say he's cool than I believe you."
"Hey now, I wanna know what happened!" Shen said.
"Oh come on! Let's just cut to the chase and be happy that she's here! (Y/n) we *gotta* introduce you to everyone!"
"Oh my lord yes!" Shen was quickly convinced. "They'll love you for sure!"
She laughed. Monkey smiled, satisfied that there was no 'oh no demon, untrustworthy, he probably kidnapped her' situation. Alas as he felt Bao's eyes on him, he could tell he planned to not leave him unattended.
'What a stuck up.' he rolled his eyes.

"(Y/n) your feet!" Shen exclaimed.
She looked down, she did have a shoe missing and her feet were covered in mud and dirt.
"Oh yeah," she chuckled. "I ran here, I got too excited."
"Come on, we'll lend you Bao's spare boots, you both have the same size."
"Not gonna ask for my permission?" Bao smiled.
"Bro we all know you would've said yes!" he exclaimed as they walked away.
"He totally would've!" Wu-peng exclaimed. "In a heart beat!" him and (Y/n) laughed.

After getting new boots and a new outfit to match with the boots, (Y/n) was introduced to all the soldiers of their brigade, they were all very nice young men. She was happy to see that to them, her three friends, their superiors, were more like respected friends than anything. In fact, they seemed to have voluntarily followed them here on this mission. It made her smile.
After that, they spent the rest of the day together. Chatting, laughing, messing around like in the good ol' days. They talked about their home village and how much they missed it, it was nice to share this feeling with someone else. Meanwhile, Monkey kept his distance and stayed in his corner, leaning against a nearby tree with his arms folded, never letting (Y/n) out of his sight. For a while, Bao stayed with him but he could see the look of longing in his eyes as he watched his friends having fun without him.
"Just go." he sighed and pushed him forward.
Taken by surprise, Bao turned towards him and took a fighting stand while he, again, was unimpressed.
"I'm not going anywhere." he said in an almost patronizing tone.
Bao's eyes narrowed but he went to join his friends, still from time to time, he'd look his way to see if he moved or not. They all spent the rest of the day at the campsite, enjoying each-other's company.

The sun set, dinner time came and they all sat by the campfire, except Monkey who sat on the branch of a nearby tree. Being surrounded by those soldiers, (Y/n) felt right at home. Just like in her monastery, they were loud, silly but charming, and most of all, they were friends. At this point, she had to explain why she was traveling with a demon, Sun Wukong of all people.
"And as it turns out, I really am the new Golden Cicada! It wasn't just my protagonist complex coming back!"
She also told them about her father's past, which shocked them for sure, but not just for this reason.
"You're nobility?!" Wu-peng exclaimed.
"No~!" she laughed. "My blood family is, I'll always be that one girl living in a monastery full of boys."
"Still, shall we call you 'my lady' from now on?" he asked, teasing.
"Oh no please don't!" she cringed and hit him on the arm.
They all laughed. Bao pictured her with an expensive hanfu, looking very elegant and noble lady-like, he felt his heart skip a beat and he shook his head to try and get a grip.

After that, the boys enthusiastically talked about their training and the missions they went on. Wu-peng and some others proudly showed off the scars they had along the way and (Y/n) wasn't sure if she should be in awe or if she should be concerned. Monkey would sometimes sneak in a funny mocking remark to make everybody laugh but she knew he could say more with that smartass mouth of his, it was like he was forcing himself not to associate with them, that would explain why he's been keeping his distance. She didn't dwell on it though, all her attention was on her childhood best friends.
"Wow," she said. "all of this in only a month and a week? That's amazing guys, I'm so proud!"
"It's all because of this guy right here!" Wu-peng wrapped an arm around Bao's neck, making him gag in surprise. "Since day one, he insisted on getting the most intense of training, our lieutenant was super impressed!"
"Right!" another soldier added. "He really inspired all of us newbies to push ourselves!"
"Aww Bao~!" she smiled and nudged him, impressed. "You really *are* a leader!"
"N-no I'm- it's nothing special really." he bashfully scratched his cheek. "I just wanted to be stronger because..." he looked down and Wu-peng let go of him. "The sooner I get stronger, the sooner I could come back to y-uh, to the village."
She lat out another 'aww~' and nudged him again as he looked away, hiding his red cheeks from her. The whole brigade sent each-other knowing looks, but they didn't say anything, although their smile said it all. Monkey understood what Bao's deal was, and he frowned without realizing it.

After that, the soldiers prepared to go to bed early, since they were planning to leave tomorrow. The group of friends (and Monkey) went into a tent and stood around a little table, on it was a map of the area and of the surrounding parts of the country. (Y/n) noticed that a location has been added with a different colored ink, she didn't have to ask, she figured it was where her village was.
"(Y/n)," Shen spoke, him and the other two looking more serious than before. "about the scale."
She took it out of her pocket and placed it on the table. Seeing it, Wu-peng whistled.
"Bao told me you were looking for one."
"Yeah," he nodded. "we were looking for the quickest way back."
"Back where?"
He looked at Bao, then back at her.
"A while back, we received a letter from our village telling us what happened to you."
"I know, he told me."
"Not everything."
She blinked twice in confusion. Her three friends shifted in their stands, this seemed to be a touchy subject. He continued.
"Since you left, demons have been frequently coming to our village, they'd take some of our people with them gods know where."
She felt her heart sink like a rock in the water, she looked down and opened her mouth, her bottom lip shaking, but no sound came out. She left her village in order to protect it, in the end it only brought the demons' attention to it.
"So..." she finally said. "I failed."
"There was no way for you to predict this would happen." Bao immediately said. "If you haven't left, the village would've been destroyed by that wolf demon in the first place. You took the better course of action possible at the moment, it's not your fault!"
Shen lightly nudged him and it was then he realized he got carried away.
"It's not your fault." he repeated, calmer.

(Y/n) lightly nodded to show she heard him. Shen and Wu-peng looked at each-other, unsure if they should continue, since the first part already shook her this much. Bao didn't hesitate though.
"That's not all, the description we got from the letter said their leader was a horned demon..." he paused. "Purple horns, wielding a spear that didn't seem to belong to him."
Once again, she was shocked speechless, but instead of despair, she felt a fire burning inside her chest. Her and Bao looked into each-other's eyes for a moment in silence, they were thinking the same thing. Finally, she turned towards Monkey.
"Monkey, I know we planned on using the scale to go to Guan Yin's island but...Do you mind if-"
"'Course not." he shook his head. "I'd also drop everything to protect my home."
She flashed a smile, then her gaze wandered.

"You look like you're planning something."
"I am." she said with a grave expression. "I plan to find this demon and kill him."
The four men suddenly looked at her with big eyes. Monkey's folded arms dropped in disbelief. Compared with what she previously told him back in the crystal mine town, this was completely out of character for her. She turned back to face her childhood friends.
"If he is the one who killed him, I *have* to do it. For Dad's sake."
"...okay." Bao nodded, he looked less shocked than the others.
"W-wait, wait!" Shen waved his hand. "She doesn't know how to fight!"
"It's fine, she can still come with us." he said without looking away from her. "We defeat the demon and she finishes him off."
Wu-peng and Shen were still caught off guard by this, but they kept quiet. Monkey was also still dumbfounded by what he was hearing.

"Thank you." (Y/n) said quietly.
Bao nodded. After that, she excused herself and left the tent. Monkey blinked twice, finally out of his stunned state and rushed after her.
"Wowowoh." he grabbed her arm, stopping her, none of them looked happy. "What's that about killing someone?"
"Yes, we're talking about the demon who is responsible for my father's death."
"You don't even know if that's really him."
"Oh I'm willing to bet it's him!"
"Either way you're not killing anybody!"
"Why the hell not? I thought you were all about justice!"
"I am! But, and I don't know if you forgot, but you are my dead master's successor! You may be completely different people, but that's *his* powers in there somewhere!" he pressed a finger on her chest. "You are *not* going against everything he stood for! I won't let you cross that line!"
"Then what?! Do you expect me to go see the one who killed my father and not do anything?!" she shouted, her voice cracking.
For a moment, he was silent, looking down, he let go of her arm.
"No." he looked back up, into her eyes. "I'll do it."
Her face fell.
"What?"
"I'll carry on your revenge for you." he spoke again.
She pursued her lips, her eyebrows furrowed. They looked into each-other's eyes for a short moment, Monkey's were calm and understanding. She sniffed, looked down and nodded.
"...alright." she said, almost in a whisper.

"Bao, are you sure?" Shen asked once the two left, his concerned look hasn't left his face. "You were so insistant on making this a official mission to carry out your vengeance, and now you're giving it to (Y/n)?"
"Of course I am." he said, leaning forwards with his hands pressed on the table, his head hung down.
"But she can't fight. She'll be exposed to danger-"
"It's fine. I'll protect her." he pressed. "She needs this more than I do."
Shen and Wu-peng sent each-other an unsure look. In this situation, it seemed that only one person could get closure. But if that's the case, what will become of the other?

It was the middle of the night, Bao could hardly sleep, twisting and turning in his bed. It's not that the wildlife was loud, on the contrary, his mind was. Finally he sat up and sighed. He didn't move for a moment, then he left his tent and went to the one they lended to (Y/n). If he could just see her, alive and well, he would be more at peace. Before he could even touch it, Monkey came out. Surprised, he stepped back as he stepped forward.
"Coming into a girl's tent at night while she's asleep?" he asked. "Bit creepy if you ask me."
He frowned, not wanting to show he was intimidated.
"What do you want?"
"...I just wanted to make sure she was okay."
"Of course she's okay, she's with me."
His frown deepened, and this time he wasn't forcing it.
"You act a bit too familiar with her." he said. "You're only traveling together because you're Sun Wukong and you're strong."
"...Is flattering me the objective here?" he raised an eyebrow. "'Cause if it is: I know I'm the best, you don't have to tell me."
"I mean that, now that me, my brothers and her are reunited, she doesn't need you anymore."
Monkey frowned, his eyes narrowed.
"You know nothing little human."
"I know her. Better than you ever will."
"A lot can change in a month." he stepped closer to him, but this time, he didn't back off. "We've been through much more together than she's ever been through in her little village. And we've grown quite close since then." he leaned closer with a smirk. "Jealous?"
They fixed each-other for a moment. Not getting a response, Monkey let out a little 'heh' and went back inside the tent.

Bao stood there, looking down, his fists clenched in frustration. He rushed back to his tent, but came right back out with his sword. He went to the little training ground they set up and took out his frustration on that one tree, it was already pretty damaged. But after a while, Bao took it down, its falls echoed through the forest. Suddenly, he regretted his choice and looked around anxiously. Wu-peng soon walked up to him.
"Geez man." he said, rubbing his eye. "Extensive training in the middle of the night now? Really?"
"Sorry, sorry!" he whispered harshly. "I-I wasn't thinking!"
"Planning on going back to bed anytime soon?"
"...not really."
"Good thing I brought this then." he smiled and showed his own sword. "I'm not gonna leave you to train alone. But after three rounds, I dragging you back in your tent."
Bao smiled, his eyebrow furrowed. The two of them faced each-other and readied themselves.