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As always, Pigsy was right on time and as always, he expected his shop to be in perfect, pristine condition. Which was exactly why when he opened the door and saw a shirtless fire-demon digging in his fridge, he couldn’t help but instantly yell.
“What are you doing?! What happened to all that bragging about being royalty? Why are you stealing food from my fridge?!”
Red Son slammed the fridge shut, holding one of MK’s yogurts, and shushed him. Did this brat really just shush him? He was about to put him in his place, but he stopped when he saw the blush on Red’s face and how he refused to look at him.
“Noodle Boy’s going to need the day off today.” Pigsy raised an eyebrow and Red cleared his throat. “He’s having one of those manic episodes. He told me about them last night.”
MK’s manic? Pigsy set a hand on his hip and sighed. “That kid. We all figured he was heading into one but we wanted to give him a chance to work it out himself.” Suddenly, Red Son’s appearance and the state he was in made a lot more sense. “I guess he called you over to do some big project with him, huh?”
When the demon prince’s hair lit up in a burst of embarrassment, Pigsy suddenly realized the details of what was going on here. “Kind of. He needed help with… something and he wanted to avoid having to explain so he wasn’t going to ask for the day off. Which is why I decided to tell you for him and take care of him today. When he wakes up I’ll take him back to my place.”
“Oh like hell you will!” Pigsy stomped forward, feeling a small bit of pride in how the other stepped back. “You don’t know the first thing about taking care of him when he’s in one of these moods! I have handled him when he’s like this just fine in the past and I’ll handle it just fine now!”
Red Son returned Pigsy’s glare with one of his own, obviously taking the challenge personally. “It’s not as though it’s hard to understand! And besides, if you’re busy with your shop, then you won’t be able to give him the undivided attention I can!”
“He doesn’t need -“ the sudden sound of a crash shut them both up and their equally worried gazes turned towards its direction. In almost no time and with a lot of extra noise, a sleepy, pantsless (at least he had those boxers on) MK came running down the stairs. He tackled Red Son in a hug with arms around his neck and Red seemed to respond quickly enough as he managed to keep his balance and not drop the yogurt.
As Pigsy studied the scene a little closer, he realized that the younger was wearing a jacket that was obviously too long for him. It was Red Son’s. MK was wearing Red Son’s jacket. Pigsy took to silently glaring at the other demon for that one.
Red let out an annoyed groan as he set the yogurt down on the counter and set his hands to MK’s waist. “Li - I mean - MK, what are you doing? Shouldn’t you be sleeping?” MK whined and tightened his grip, an action that seemed to surprise and displease Red. “MK.” He said, clearly meaning something else with his firm tone.
“No.” Was the overdue response and the first thing MK had said all morning. “I don’t need sleep. I just don’t want you to die.”
Pigsy crossed his arms and gave Red a knowing glance even as the brat sputtered and took a second to panic. “What?!”
Pigsy smirked. “I told you. You don’t know the first thing about handling him in these moods. Let him ride this delusion out for now and then you can go crawling back to whatever hole you’re from. I’ll take care of him here without you.”
His smirk twitched when Red glared at him even as he spoke to MK. Pigsy really didn’t like the way he pet the kid’s hair. “I’m not going to die, Love.” The fire prince’s expression softened as he turned to face MK, forcing him back to look in his eyes. “I’ll stay with you to prove it if I have to.”
As the two of them went back and forth with MK whining and complaining and nearly coming to tears at one point, Pigsy’s gaze began to soften. The way Red Son was holding the kid and lowering his tone to a calming one meant to relax the other, the way he smiled and reassured him that everything would be okay and the way all of those actions managed to work and MK let go to return upstairs and wait on Red, even taking the cup of yogurt with him and eating it without a fuss…it just about broke his heart.
MK was acting irrationally, undoubtedly having a delusion, and instead of everyone needing to accept what was happening and pray for it to not turn into an anger outburst due to them needing to deny him his wild thoughts, Red Son was able to calm him down from it with his words alone. He was able to take care of MK during one of his most difficult moments.
And Pigsy just stood and watched.
Pigsy stood and watched as Red was able to take care of MK in a way even he could never do.
Yeah, he was heart broken.
Red Son turned to Pigsy with a fiery glare, completely ignorant of the way Pigsy’s own emotions were acting.
“I’ll take care of him.”
“You take care of him.”
There was a pause after they spoke simultaneously. A pause where Red’s expression quickly moved from challenging to shock to confusion. Pigsy sighed and turned away, rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, you heard me right. As much as I hate to admit it, and trust me, I hate to admit it, you seem to know the kid well enough to handle him.”
“He’s not a kid.”
Pigsy tensed instantly. He hated that phrase. It wasn’t the first time someone said it to him, that honor went to Sandy.
“You know he’s not a kid, right, Pigsy? He’s in his early twenties.”
And the second and third times were from Tang.
“Come on, Pigsy, let him have some fun. He’s not a kid anymore. As long as he’s getting to work on time then you shouldn’t worry about him staying out late.”
“Pigsy, I’m starting to worry about you babying him too much. He’s not a kid. He can handle himself.”
Why did everyone have to agree on that one specific phrase? Hearing it from Sandy and Tang was one thing, but now that even Red Son had said it, it had become harder to deny. Downright impossible, really.
“He can handle himself.” Another familiar phrase repeated at him. “He just needs a little extra help from time to time and it’s the least I can do after all he’s done for me.”
Pigsy looked back to Red who had turned away with a blush. As if that last part was hard for him to admit. Pigsy sighed again. “You’re right. I guess I need to let him go.” When the other scoffed as if mocking Pigsy’s turmoil, he just about throttled him right there in the store.
“Who said anything about needing to let him go? Just switch up how you view him. It’s not like he’ll never need you for anything. He’ll just have me for the parts you can’t do, which will be most of them, and he’ll have you on the off chance there’s some rare instance of some trivial matter that I can not help him with.”
Pigsy couldn’t fight the roll of his eyes. “Just go support him. He clearly needs you more than he needs me now.”
Red Son groaned and mumbled. “That must be where he gets it from…” Before Pigsy could question what he heard, Red spoke up. “He will never stop needing you. He’ll just need you in a different way. Watch out for what way that is and in the meantime, I’ll do what I’m meant to.”
Pigsy tried to respond but a loud whine came from upstairs. “Reeeeeed I’m gonna go blind I need you to nurse me back to normal with your mystic magic demon fire business…”
Red Son blushed and Pigsy gave him a smirk as he crossed his arms. “You heard him. Go nurse him back to health so he won’t lose his eyesight.”
Red Son grumbled some insults, some things in an ancient language and then made his way upstairs to help the man in question.
A phone rang, the store phone, and Pigsy answered it with practiced ease.
“Pigsy’s noodles, home of the world’s longest noodle! … No, there won’t be any deliveries today. Our delivery driver is out sick but don’t worry,” he paused when he saw the magic that signified Red’s teleportation leaving out the upstairs fire escape and smiled, “he’s well taken care of and will be back soon.”