Morning Light is a DragonFruit Monkie Kid fanfic by TwinklingCupcake.
Mei and Red Son have been married for a few months when one day, Mei feels sick. Realizing that she's been feeling unwell for a week already, and noting that she's missed a period, Mei gets herself tested… and discovers that yes, she's pregnant.
What follows is a domestic, slice-of-life story as Mei and Red Son prepare for their baby, and involve everyone else as well.
It is now complete, and can be read on Ao3 here
. There have also been many spin-off sequels detailing the cast's lives with Mei and Red Son's new child.
Morning Light contains examples of:
- Adaptational Relationship Overhaul:
- In canon, Pigsy and Tang are Vitriolic Best Buds. Here, they're outright stated to be married, and have even adopted the girl, Bai He.
- While not shown onscreen, Sandy and Huntsman are clearly friends (or possibly more), as Huntsman was visiting with Sandy when Mei and Red Son came to share the news of her pregnancy, though he hid from them in a closet.
- Artistic Licence Medicine: Mei is given an epidural for a home delivery; home deliveries do not have the luxury of epidural, as it requires special medical equipment that only a hospital would be able to have.
- Affectionate Gesture to the Head:
- Mei strokes Red Son's hair while comforting him after he has a nightmare about attacking their child.
- Mei and Red Son both stroke their baby's hair and head after she's born.
- Alternate Universe Fic: Officially falls into this, as in this universe the spiders are inexplicably alive.
- Beautiful Dreamer: Red Son watches Mei sleeping after she gives birth, finding her more beautiful than ever. Demon Bull King admits to have done the same with his own wife.
- Entertainment Above Their Age: Bai He watches a TV drama called Three-Day Cinderella. Nothing is known about it, except that there’s a love triangle and one character gets pregnant, but it's probably meant for adults, as Tang tells her she's only fourteen and thus shouldn't be watching it.
- Everyone Has Standards: Spider Queen puts out a city-wide call for a ceasefire upon learning of Mei's pregnancy. Yin and Jin explain to Mei that only "the lowest scum" would attack a pregnant mother or her infant, at least in the modern day. Even Macaque gets involved, enforcing the ceasefire by secretly guarding their home.
- Feeling the Baby Kick: Mei and Red Son do this a lot after the baby starts responding to their voices. Wukong attempts this himself as well, but gets no response.
- Hand on Womb: How Sandy realizes Mei is pregnant before she even tells him, seeing that her hand is idly covering her stomach.
- Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action: Implied; Mei and Red Son’s baby is born with cow features, revealing that they conceived while Red Son was in his bull demon form.
- Last-Minute Baby Naming: Mei and Red Son can't settle on a name for their child until the moment they're born. They decide on "Chenguang" after Mei sees that the sun is rising.
- Last-Second Word Swap: Sun Wukong sees Mei and yells "Whoa, Mei, you're–!" He then stops for a few seconds and finishes with "bigger." While it's not known exactly what he was going to say, the sudden pause suggests this trope is at work.
- Little Bit Beastly: The baby is born mostly resembling a human, but having the ears, tail, and hooves of a cow.
- Morning Sickness: Mei doesn't piece together that she's pregnant until she vomits one morning. Afterwards, she deliberately eats bland food for a time so as not to trigger it again.
- Original Character: Jingyi, a rabbit demon who serves as Mei's midwife and who'd previously helped deliver Red Son as well.
- Playing with Fire: Of course, both Mei and Red Son have this power in canon; Mei releases sparks and small flames during labor because of the pain. Their daughter also is shown to have inherited fire powers, spitting up a blue flame two weeks after her birth.
- Pregnancy Makes You Crazy: Downplayed. Mei occasionally feels more emotional, crying at the sight of another woman's baby and sometimes waking up in the middle of the night in tears, but that's the biggest change her emotions have.
- Shown Their Work: The various superstition-based advice Mei is given (such as not being in the same room as someone hammering) are real superstitions surrounding pregnancy in China. Radiation-proof aprons are also a real product in China.
- Spit Take: Iron Fan asks Mei what form Red Son was in when they conceived their baby, his canon human-like appearance or a larger, more bull-like one. It causes Mei, Red Son, and DBK to spit out their tea.
- Title Drop: "Morning Light" is what Mei and Red Son's daughter's name, Chenguang, means.
- Unexplained Recovery: The spiders are said to be alive, with no actual explanation of how it happened.
- Wacky Cravings: Mei's cravings range from wanting a particular flavor (savory and sweet) to highly-specific textures and flavors together (leading her to eat a Granny Smith apple with chili powder inside a meat dumpling), to just really wanting ice-cream.
- What If the Baby Is Like Me: A variant; Mei and Red Son are concerned that their baby will inherit the Samadhi Fire. To their relief, she doesn't.
