Tang didn't know why he did it.
He wasn't the fastest or the strongest of their little group. He prided himself on being one of the smarter ones of the group, years of study both as a student and now as a scholar and part-time professor bolstering that pride. But right now, as he leapt forward to push Pigsy out of the way of whatever it was that MK had dodged, he felt...
Very, very foolish.
Tang didn't feel anything but pain as the attack—a magic blast or something—hit him right in the stomach and sent him straight to the ground. The pain only lasted a split second, before the only thing that hurt was where his body impacted the ground. An all encompassing lethargy—a heaviness in his head that he had only felt once before when a particularly nasty week of studying made him pass out after four days of no sleep—suddenly came over him.
"Ow..."
"Agh, you hit the wrong one!"
"How was I supposed to know Monkie Kid would jump and he would push the pig guy out of the way!?"
"My name is MK, you know this," MK muttered as the demon twins argued between each other. Ignoring the bickering duo for now, the Monkie Kid rushed over to his fallen friend. "Mr. Tang! Are you dead?"
"No," Tang mumbled, "But I feel like it." The scholar groaned as he felt himself being pulled up by someone behind him. Pigsy, his mind managed to fill in. There wasn't anyone else it could have been. The chef pulled Tang into a sitting position, hands on the other's shoulders to keep him from falling backward. Tang felt so exhausted all of a sudden.
"Okay, uhhhhh..." MK trailed off, not sure how to respond to that. The kid turned around, attention returning to the two demons. "...What are your names again?"
"WE'RE THE GOLD AND SILVER DEMONS!" The orange one of the two shouted in frustration. He pointed to each of them in turn. "Jin and Yin? You've fought us at least twice now?"
MK's face lit up. "Oooooh, you're the Speedy Panda guys!" he exclaimed as he finally remembered.
"And! And the calabash!" The blue one—Tang hadn't been paying attention—added in with a smile. He went to lean on his brother in what would have been a cool villain pose... had they not both almost immediately started to topple over. If he wasn't so tired, Tang might have felt major second-hand embarrassment at the awkward recovery.
"Anyway, yes! That is us!"
Honestly, if he didn't know any better he would say that these two weren't even a danger to anyone except themselves.
"Okay, well, now that that's settled..." MK said, sounding almost chipper for a moment. And then: "WHAT THE BRICK DID YOU DO TO MY FRIEND!?"
The orange one blinked. "I thought he was your father figure?"
"It was very unclear if Monkie Kid thought of him like that," the other chimed in. "He—"
"Stop arguing semantics over my choice of words and answer my question!" MK shouted as he gestured wildly to Tang.
"Agh, he's gonna be fine," the blue one brushed off with a shrug of his shoulders. "Just a... a... an energy draining curse, not even long lasting. He'll be fine after a night of sleep for sure!"
There was something in the way that the blue demon said that... Tang didn't like the way he muttered that, nor the way he looked at the other and they seemed to smirk a bit. But that wasn't something he was able to really do much about because, whether they were being entirely truthful or not, it seemed the energy that he did have left wasn't enough to keep him awake. His vision swam as his chin slammed against his chest.
He was vaguely aware of the voice of someone behind him shouting his name, as well as screaming and shouting from in front of him.
Darkness.
Darkness and loud sounds and bigness all around him.
Why was everything so big?
So loud?
In the distance he could see someone dressed in white and black.
He didn't even notice he was running until the world started passing by. His feet thumped against the ground as he rushed forward, moving far too fast and not fast enough.
Why was he running? Why was the other so far away?
When he tried to yell out to the person in the distance, nothing came from his lips.
What was going on!?
Something up ahead made his head snap up. Far away, the figure started to turn towards him...
His eyes widened in recognition.
"Pigsy!?" Tang yelped as he sat up quickly, head throbbing as his vision swam. He closed his eyes and pulled his knees up to rest his head on them. Slowly, the dizziness subsided.
Drawing in the breath, the scholar scanned his surroundings. He quickly found that he was in his bedroom. Besides the walls and his dresser across from his bed, the blanket covering him was a pretty big tell. But he had... passed out on the street, right? Had...
Had Pigsy and MK brought him home?
As Tang lifted his head, he couldn't help but notice that he was still in the same clothes he had been in the day before. At least, he assumed it had been the day before. There was no way it was this bright outside without it being the next day. The sun shone through his curtains like it was the middle of the day. He distinctly remembered yet another demon's, or demons', latest scheme to attack MK had been later in the afternoon. Almost to the point of sunset.
Letting out a breath, Tang turned his head. On his alarm clock, illuminated in red lettering, was the time 11:53AM.
"...Shit, it's THAT late?" It wasn't the latest anyone had ever woken up, but for him? That was tantamount to someone sleeping until 4:00PM on a Wednesday afternoon. He was never a morning person, but he always made sure to be up and ready to go by 8:00AM sharp at the latest no matter what the day was. "I was out for almost fifteen hours?" he gasped, still incredulous.
He felt... well, outside of his lightheadedness, he certainly felt like had slept for fifteen hours. His body was a little stiff, in desperate need of a shower, but otherwise alright.
Wide awake and ready to go.
...Well, maybe ready AFTER that shower.
It would have been the first thing he did if he hadn't seen the note next to his clock. A smile formed on his face as he recognized a certain Monkie Kid's sloppy handwriting.
"Mr. Tang,
I beat up the demon bros and Pigsy is pretty sure they told the truth about the thing they hit you with only draining your energy. You kinda woke up when we got you home and
you were acting the way you normally do when you're tired. Pigsy and I stayed over (he made me take your air mattress—we put it back I promise!) to make sure you were okay.
We tried to wake you up but you went right back to sleep so Pigsy said you were gonna be fine. We set your alarm for twelve just in case so sorry about leaving you home alone!
We'll be at the noodle shop (or I'll be delivering noodles and Pigsy will be there) so stop by when you wake up! If you don't Pigsy said he's going to come back and wake you up with extra spicy noodles so hopefully that doesn't happen.
OK BYEEE!
MK
P.S.: Sorry I finished off your milk. I really wanted some cereal for breakfast."
Tang felt his grin broaden as he reached for his phone. MK was a good kid. He wasn't surprised at all by the fact that him and Pigsy had brought him home and wanted to check on him. As he sent them each a text to tell them he had just woken up, he couldn't help but remember that dream.
It was so... weird. Almost like a nightmare but not quite.
And why was Pigsy in it?
Pigsy...
A pink flush spread across the scholar's face as he realized that the chef had been in his apartment. Had been in his apartment and had carried him to bed and tucked him in too. He could have just thrown him on the bed and gone home, but he had been so careful. And dang, he must have been strong to carry him the whole way back. He knew a lot about Pigsy, but that was a surprise. Maybe—
Tang suddenly shook his head. No! No thinking about Pigsy like that. Besides, it wasn't like he actually... thought about him like that all the time...
He pinched his cheeks.
Nope!
Shaking his head one last time, Tang climbed out of bed and made his way to his shower. He didn't stop to look in the mirror as he pushed his hair out of his face and felt a twinge in his head once again.
Hopefully that wasn't a sign of something. Like a concussion. That would be bad.
"What the...?" Tang leaned forward, as close to his mirror as he could get. "Are my lights dying?" He reached up, pulling down a strand of now drying hair. Normally, his hair was a dark brown, bordering on black, but this...
It almost looked a lighter brown in his bathroom lighting.
"Weird. Maybe it's the new shampoo," the man muttered to himself with a scowl. "If it had bleach in it and there wasn't a warning about it..."
But then again...
He turned his head left and right, admiring the color.
It wasn't half bad. In fact, while he was never one to dye his hair—too much upkeep in his opinion—this shade would be one he would consider doing if he did. And maybe it was just a trick of the light.
"Best not to overthink it," he muttered to himself, stretching as he brushed his hair back into place and looked himself over in the mirror. He glanced up at the clock. "Okay, lunch hasn't passed yet! Can't keep Pigsy and MK waiting!"
"Pigsy, I'm here!" Tang announced as he arrived in the noodle shop, making his way over to his usual seat.
"Hey! Glad to see you're up and about, lunch rush has an early lull before the usual second pick up so I'm making us something to eat," Pigsy announced. He turned, just having finished chopping some vegetables and dropping them in a simmering pot to boil. "How are you feeling? Any..." the chef paused, doing a double-take. "Did you do something to your hair?"
"Uuuuuuuuh, maybe?" Tang answered. His earlier concern about the color change came back just a bit... but it was tempered by the comforting and familiar smell of Pigsy's cooking. "I think it was just the new shampoo I got, I probably did something to it I wasn't supposed to." He chuckled, only a hint of artificiality in it. "Now! You were making lunch, you said?"
Pigsy's smile softened, and... gosh, he looked so nice when he smiled like that. Tang couldn't help but smile a bit himself in return. The chef was so h—
The sound of the shop door opening made both of their heads turn to the side. At the flip of a switch, Pigsy slipped into his usual customer service mode. It didn't take him long to get the customer's order ready, nor to get Tang and himself something to eat as they waited for another customer.
They fell into their usual pattern: Tang sitting at the counter as Pigsy checked over his cooking. But while his eyes were focused on the book in his hands, Tang's mind began to wander. The strange dream. The way he had slept. His hair now that it was brought up by someone else. It was all so... odd. A trio of very bizarre coincidences that didn't seem right somehow. Nothing felt like it should go together and yet somehow it all felt like a part of a larger puzzle he was missing.
"You okay?" Pigsy asked with a raise of his brow. "You've been quiet this afternoon."
"Oh yeah, just thinking about something," Tang answered with a shrug. "Weird dream I had last night."
"Well, after that hit you took for me yesterday I'm not surprised," Pigsy continued, turning back around to finish cutting up ingredients for his next batch of soup. "That was a pretty nasty fall after. You sure it didn't do anything else but slam into you? You think it has something to do with your new hair color?"
"Nothing," Tang replied. "And I sincerely doubt it. What kind of magic or curse or whatever changes just hair color?"
Pigsy hummed in agreement. "Good point. I'd hate to see my number one non-paying customer down for the count." Despite his words and his deadpan tone, Tang could see the warmth on the other's face while he said it. "Granted, I think that you love these noodles enough to fight Yama himself to come back. You sure there isn't something else you love here that keeps you coming back?"
It was a joke, Tang was sure. Just a joke. So logically he joked back. "You also make some of the best jiaozi I have ever had," he responded. The grin on his face faltered when a thrum of pain—similar but slightly different from before—throbbed in the back of his head. He groaned as he covered his eyes and rubbed his temples.
"Headache?" Pigsy asked softly.
"I think so," Tang answered after the thrum went away. "It's come and gone since I got up. Thought I just needed to get moving and get food but I dunno."
"Normally, I would agree and say that's the best idea, but maybe you should go back home and get more... rest...?"
The way the other trailed off made Tang nervous.
"Pigsy?" Tang asked, pulling away one hand and moving the other to push his hair back out of his...
He blinked.
"...What the hell?"
"Did the humidity of the shop do that?" Pigsy asked as he leaned forward. A little... too forward, Tang quickly noticed. He absolutely did not blush as Pigsy got just a little too close to his face for comfort... or was he just close enough and Tang was comfortable with it?
"Uh! MAYBE!" Tang said as he jumped up, blushing even more as he grabbed his book.
"You know, uh, maybe I should take it easy?"
The chef looked at him for a moment before he smiled again, that same soft smile but with an air of concern behind it this time. It was amazing. Somehow that was all it took to calm Tang down all over again.
"Yeah," Pigsy said with a nod. "And uh, check that shampoo just to be safe? It looks good on you, but still."
"Will do," Tang said, smiling on his way out.
...Maybe the new hair wasn't so bad. His hair had never felt so soft before. And if Pigsy liked it...
But maybe it was bad after all. He had no way of knowing if it was an adverse reaction.
And the further away he got from the shop, the more Tang wondered if it was worse than he feared. Hopefully, no one bumped into him on the way home. He didn't want to have to explain what happened. He didn't know what was happening! He had no answers, and he was supposed to be the answer guy! Oh, oh, what if it WAS bad? What if it was a sign of something else? He thought back to the night before. Could there possibly be magic or curses that made your appearance change bit by bit?
No, that was silly. There would be no point to something like that, right?
Tang felt his anxiety rise more and more as he began to overthink his predicament. After all, it was just hair! Hair that had mysteriously lightened in color after a shower and over the day had somehow softened immensely. Almost to the point of... not really feeling like hair anymore if he really thought about it...
"MR. TANG!" A familiar voice rang out, and that line of thought was abandoned. It took no time for Tang to turn and see a familiar vehicle pulling up right beside him.
"Hi, Tang! Did you do something to your hair?"
"Oh no," Tang muttered under his breath, very much wishing that his usual outfit came equipped with a hood of some kind. Or a hat. Or a scarf that wouldn't make it blatantly obvious he was hiding something. "Heeeey, MK! Mei! Coming back from a delivery?"
"Yup!" MK said as the two of them hopped out of the tuk-tuk. "Bumped into Mei at the arcade on the last one so I brought her back for some lunch."
"You also just blatantly avoided my question," Mei interjected with a raise of her brow.
"I absolutely did not!" Tang protested, huffing as he crossed his arms. "It's just polite to greet you first!"
"Yeah, sure you didn't," Mei said with a chuckle, elbowing MK. "Just like you don't have a crush on a certain chef, ey MK?"
The two chuckled together for a moment, the accusation a familiar one but in this moment...
"NO!" Tang snapped, immediately regretting it in an instant. "I-I... I'm sorry. It's been a rough morning. Afternoon."
"Hey, hey! It's cool!" MK said quickly, waving his arms in front of him. "You've never told us off like that before, were we bothering you with our jokes? We can stop."
"No, it's okay," Tang assured quickly, sighing as he rubbed his face. It felt like he'd just been pricked with something the way a bit of his face thrummed in pain. "Like I said. Rough morning. I think, maybe, my shampoo might have done something?"
"That's not possible," Mei countered. And there was something in her voice that made Tang concerned. "With your hair color? You'd need to go to a salon to dye it. I know that for a fact. And hair doesn't get that much softer with the shampoo they have on store shelves. Besides..." she paused. It was the tiniest pause but something about it made that little bit of concern grow into worry. "You might want to worry more about the freckles I just watched form on your face."
