Dareth looked at the clock adorning the wall of the dojo yet again, showing it was nearly seven, wondering where his students were. The ninja were too busy to keep him preoccupied from doing this often, but he knew that his class was supposed to start… now. To ignore the feeling of rejection; he wasn't patient, the brunet started to look for something to do. "Perhaps you need a better time for your class?"

Spinning around to spot a cleverly disguised Lord Garmadon- the staff could cause an illusion for however long was needed- he had to stop himself from leaping happily at the other. Instead, he played it cool, "They know they can't get training like this elsewhere, I am after all; a highly skilled karate machine."

The dark lord nearly let out a snort at the funny stance, but rolled his eyes as if it irked him. Not wanting to offend his partner too much, Garmadon shrugged and pulled a magazine at the wooden coffee table on the side, pretending to read about something that happened to celebrities' months ago.

Just as Dareth was about to demand attention from the other, Jeff and Phil rushed in and looked sorry. Sadly the brunet couldn't tell the two apart even tough they'd been coming for a while now. Waving off their apologies easily, he motioned them over, glancing over at the sudden attentive behavior of Garmadon. Sighing silently, he announced to the boys that they do a warm-up with the animal stances.

The lighter brunet watched curiously and then shook his head slightly as he watched the boys be lead to do seemingly random animal poses with crazy noises. Biting his tongue, so to say, he had to stare back at the magazine to keep from saying anything; the one thing he couldn't easily change was his vocals. He could almost see the slight twinge of hurt in Dareth's facial expression from the side view he had.

"Now we have one more new warm-up today," he nearly allowed a full faced smirk as he heard the magazine get slapped back down of the coffee table, successfully gaining attention. Getting on to his back and bringing his knees up to his chest and pulling his arms to his chest, and hands pointing down. Moving his body from side to side, he spoke finally, "This is more of a defensive move; the kitten." The actual kitten that inhabited the dojo was patting at the beads hanging from the nearby doorway, calling attention from Dareth.

Hinder then noticed how many humans were nearby and rushed to the most familiar, the dojo owner. He leapt on the neutral-adorned stomach curiously and the legs went down slowly, the oldest man couldn't help but chuckle, "But you can't win even against the actual cat."

The boys laughed and moved over to crouch down and pet the little multicolored fuzz ball that was curling up in a ball for a moment, but then caught a whiff of a familiar scent and speed to rub his scent over the dark denim jeans of Garmadon. The rusty purr increased when the man ran his hand over the tortoiseshell-patterned head of the kitten, doing his best to be gentle.

Dareth sat up, feeling a bit agitated, and walked over, "Like you could do any better."

"Challenging me isn't wise, Dareth," the voice was tamed to sound normal, but he could still hear the sadistic undertones in which the children could not. And this wasn't even meant that way. Since he figured the other wasn't doing anything, he got up and walked over to the middle of the room. "Would you two like to learn actual moves?" As the boys agreed eagerly, it was Dareth's turn to sit out while his partner taught karate like it the most natural thing.

~~

Finally acknowledging his partner's pout after the students left, Garmadon sat next to him on the other plastic chair carefully, "Are you okay?"

Ending up not giving the silent treatment after all, the younger shrugged, "I'm completely okay… What's there to worry about?" But even the hairspray couldn't keep the hair from drooping a bit.

"…Is it because I taught your students?" He raised an eyebrow at the shorter male, hoping to get a clear indication towards the point where the sorrow was.

Earning a shrug, Dareth got up, but didn't travel very far, instead just to the front of the building to peer out, "I don't deserve this building," he murmured, "I didn't even learn karate that well."

Getting up himself, Garmadon scooped up the mewling Hinder and moved over next to where the dojo owner was. Turning his head to notice the rare moment where raw emotion was pouring out Dareth in tear form, the dark lord wrapped his illusion arm around the other's waist, unsure how to truly soothe the hurt feelings. "You deserve this dojo, Dareth, perhaps not for your skills…" earning a glare quickly, "but for your determination to prove your worth. It'd be taken seriously if you weren't so random; but who you are is good enough, period."

Sniffing and wiping his tears with the back of his arm, the ninja wannabe chuckled weakly, "Wow, I'm a mess over you teaching my students. Pathetic…"

Noticing everyone was mostly back into his or her buildings and homes, the dark lord slowly let his illusion wear off. He swore he could hear a sigh of relief come quietly from the younger and the slight weight of Dareth leaning in gently, "Do you prefer me like this?" Feeling the nod, he tilted his head so it rested on the other man's, "Why?"

It was silent, except for Hinder meowing loudly to be put down, who ended up leaping out and into the next room quickly since he wasn't the center of attention anymore. Then Dareth too a steady breathe, "I don't know. It surprised me though, I never found anyone truly attractive enough to want to date. While you may not see it, I like your dimples whenever you smile." Jinxing the bigger man into doing so subconsciously, "Then I guess I'm just into bad boys?" It was joke, but felt it was pretty true, blushing embarrassedly as he remembered the time when Captain Soto had expertly ripped open his shirt with the sword and sported a gleam in his eye. Though he was honestly more into ninjas for whatever reason.

"Bad boys?" repeated Garmadon, "That makes me sound so much younger, and I never attended that boarding school."

Rolling his eyes and grinning, the dark brunet stepped back so they could be face to face. It grew silent again, so Dareth moved forward to lock their lips in a kiss. Knowing better than to protest; since this was their first kiss in a long while, the armor-clad lord moved back while they were lip-locking to close the blinds for the time being, but instead he found a lightly tanned arm blocking his simple reach quickly. The kiss broke when Dareth shook his head, "I don't care anymore, Garmadon, I just hate being so secretive. I like gloating though."

"Clearly," snorted said man, but then picked back up the kiss, deepening it a bit while he moved out of the blinding moonlight, but yet again was backed away from. Instead, Dareth grasped his arm and was allowed to lead him out the backdoor and to the nearby park, to the most pen area, straight under the moon. "What are we-" without his guard up, the sudden push made his armor go down to gravity's call easily and the other dropped down beside him happily.

"I think this'll be more fun, right?" Giggled the dojo master and somehow got his head comfortable on the tough steel plate on the chest armor.

Awkwardly holding the other, Garmadon wasn't sure what to do next, but he knew they would get more organized with this… eventually.