[Inspired by The Family That Never Leaves on Ao3]

You'd grown up on cobbled, cracked streets in horrid conditions.

Dilapidated houses and late night fights were a constant in your life. With nothing to hide you but an old, ratty hoodie and some baggy pants you'd stolen off a clothes linen months back, you ran across alleys and abandoned streets, taking cover from the storms and the cold in old buildings with too many holes in the walls to provide much shelter.

You were a wild street child, and you'd raised yourself as such.

Memories of any life, any guidance before now were blurry and faded. Kind smiles and gentle claws graced your memory on occasion, but you held no direct memory of your previous caretakers. An old time that had fallen through your fingers like sand.

The sun was beginning to set, and, oddly enough, you're still in downtown, weaving between the people beginning to crowd as the Lunar New Year approached. Food graced your nose, and yet you kept four ears pinned to your head under your hoodie, and your tail folded into your pants, the end curled around your ankle.

You'd only decided to look for a few minutes. After all, the appearance of the Emperors of Flower Fruit Mountain never came to Camel Ridge often. In fact, they hadn't visited in the last decade.

You approach the front, and manage to get a decent view of the table, and watch the two Celestial Monkey's, both seated at the table.

Sun Wukong, ever the socialite, is chattering away with Azure Lion, Camel Ridge's decently graceful King, his tail linked with his partner, the Six-Eared Macaque, whose gaze is deftly observing the crowd.

You stare, unable to help the way your pupils widen. You hadn't seen any other Monkey Demon's in the entire time you've lived here. Wait, scratch that. Any Monkey's.

Sun Wukong and Six-Eared Macaque were not Demon's, they were Celestial Monkey's. You were a Monkey Demon.

There was a set-in-stone difference there.