Cole allowed himself to take longer to get ready this morning. It wasn't like he had much to do, seeing as his apartment seemed so much quieter than he was honestly used to. The raven-haired yawned slightly as he searched awkwardly for his favorite jeans. Acquiring today's full outfit, he felt more satisfied with how today was going. Kai had agreed to do the laundry, but never agreed to fold or put them away, so the wooden basket was overflowing with jumbled up clothing. At the bottom were their ninja uniforms.

Wincing at the bad placement of the attire, the male got to work folding the different choices. He knew Kai was currently off at the store, so who knew how long that would honestly take. 'Great,' the pale teenager thought as he folded a comical shirt owned by his slightly older husband, 'I get to spend this day all by myself…?' After what felt like so much longer than usual, his self-proclaimed chore was nearly through. Freezing at the sight of something different, he plucked an unidentifiable shirt sticking out from under the bed halfway. 'Jeez, he is so messy-' It couldn't be Kai's though…

He crumpled the clothing in his grasp and abandoned his folding project to move to the living room.

~*.*~

Upon hearing the apartment door's lock click open, Cole looked up from the magazine he couldn't possibly focus on. After his partner walked in eagerly, the bags were dropped softly. Kai walked over in a chipper mood, "Hey, sorry for taking so long."

Feigning a slight shrug, the ground ninja neatly put down the closed reading material back onto the coffee table, "No, no, take as long as you want."

"Um, you feeling okay, Cole?" The red ninja plopped down beside his lover in an exhausted manner. Scooting closer, he finally caught sight of a shirt draped there. He made a wincing face, "Look, it's not what it-"

"Isn't it?" Snapped Cole as he practically leapt up, "You have another guy's shirt under your side of the bed. You even tried to hide it!" At the opening mouth, "Don't you dare say this is yours!" He shook his hands to show the full front, 'Mother Doomsday' adorning across it in big letters.

Taking the shirt calmly from the violently shaking hands of the other, Kai sighed and stood up, but to get the opposing boy to sit back down next to him. Allowing a breath, "It is so not what you think, really. He came over once, forgot to change at home on the way to work, and must have dropped an extra shirt. I so swear to you, Cole."

"Then… what is it?" They both knew how bad this looked, yet Cole knew his love well enough to hear him out for the truth.

Starting again, "Rufus has been having a tough time, and whenever you leave for work he comes over to visit. As friends!" Kai follows up with fiercely, hoping no bad thoughts will occur now, "While he's been getting better, his depression just kind of drags him back down. I try to get him to see a therapist or someone who gets his troubles…"

"What kind?" Cole began to feel bad for even thinking…

Kai shakes his head slowly, "All kinds. From being dumped into an orphanage after not living up to his rich family's expectations to technically losing his partner."

It grew quiet, and they grew closer together physically. Cole peered over to the brooding teenager and laughed weakly, "I can't believe us, Kai. We always think whenever we have to spend time apart it's the worse thing ever, but he can't even… Wait," continued the confused teen, "If his partner is still alive, why can't Rufus see him?"

"It makes the poor guy have a conniption fit, you know, probably from all the memories hitting him along with the hallucinations. He can't have many visitors, but… Rufus, man, he's so dedicated to Calvin it's like he crazy too. They can't even see one another, and he's never looked for someone else." Kai sounded proud and impressed, "Nearly ten long years."

"Kai," the dark-haired nearly knocked the other male sideways with a fierce clamping hug, "I never want a fight, ever… That would kill me, though."

Giving a softened grin, snaking a hand around the slender middle of the other, "What would?"

It was completely quiet, until, "No contact with you. In any way."

"They can still talk, but not be in the same room. Apparently Calvin started to actually see improvement, so they're tempted to put them in the same room. It scares him, knowing that in the past nothing kept them from being this-" motioning to their current situation, causing Cole to wrap his lithe arms around the tanned neck, "-close…"

Something loomed over and the possibility of any sort of fight that loomed went away with the air conditioning system. Leaning back together, they barely made much eye contact until they actually tried. Their eyes- hazel to greenish-blue- now were clearly locked. Leaning in, the couple refused to back away. Slowly inching forward, they made a silent vow never to take this for granted.

"Why did Rufus come to you?" Blurted the uncertain boy without thinking.

"He didn't," admitted Kai slowly, "He came to Lloyd randomly, but was sent to me for whatever reason."

In a way this fascinated Cole, thinking that some mostly random man came for help from teenagers. What was going through his mind? He probably knew how close the ninjas' relationships were. Though… Why Lloyd first? Was there something the boy had that the others did not? Soon enough they would figure that out. For now, the couple decided to embrace sweetly, trying to block out the world- and succeeded.

((A/N: I tried for the "revolution" of LavaShipping... Honestly, I had two competing ideas to resist...))