It was winter, and winter meant two things in the Temple of Airjitzu.

One, it meant below zero temperatures throughout the entire place. The temple was so old that it had absolutely no heating installed. The ninja could be seen wandering the halls with dozens of blankets covering their shoulders whenever they needed a snack, much to Misako's amusement.

Two, it meant that Kai was almost always asleep. Kai had been turned into an anacondrai around the time that the ninja had fought Chen, and while Skylor and Chen himself had turned back human after the final battle, Kai's tattoos had cursed him to always be an anacondrai. So now that he was effectively a snake man, Kai didn't hold up too well to the cold.

Jay shuffled throughout the temple with this in mind. Kai would be asleep when he opened that door, no doubt. But Kai would also be unbelievably warm. Jay tugged his several blankets tighter around himself. Warm would be an improvement to the cold he was feeling now.

His blankets trailed along the wooden floor, snagging on splinters in certain places. Yes, all he had to do was sneak into Kai's room and find a way to snuggle around Kai's warm snake body without waking him up. Easy peasy.

At least, it should be.

Jay sniffled as he passed Cole's room. Luckily it was empty, Cole was out visiting his dad. So at least he wouldn't have to worry about the earth ninja teasing him about his relationship. Again.

Next was Zane's room, and Jay was surprised to see that the nindroid was actually still here. Zane was supposed have gone out on a mission 20 minutes ago. Jay hovered outside the door, squinting at Zane and trying to decide whether or not to say anything. If the weather were warmer, Jay would've instantly launched into some long and overly complicated nagging about how Zane should stay on schedule, but right now it was just too cold. He decided to leave, but not before Zane had finally taken notice of him.

"Jay," Zane started, "It is strange to see you walking around without trailing a heater behind you this time of year. I take it you're going to sleep with Kai?"

"You're lucky I'm both too cold and too tired to give you my usual nonsense." Jay replied, tugging his blankets so close around him that he looked like a burrito, "But yeah. I just so happen to be doing exactly that."

He paused awkwardly, as Zane looked at him.

"Don't you have a mission to be on?" Jay finally asked when Zane's staring became a little too much.

At that, Zane shrugged, and turned away to face the window. There was a thick layer of snow covering the floating island.

"I did, but Lloyd asked to take the mission instead. He said he wanted to distract himself from 'sitting around collecting dust', as he put it."

Jay hummed in understanding.

"Nya go with him? I noticed her stuff gone from the lobby when I walked past."

Zane nodded, and Jay assumed that by lack of verbal response, the conversation was over. He continued his slow, zombie-like shuffle towards the end of the hall, where Kai's room was.

The door was locked, and a small sign hung from the doorknob. Jay squinted to try and read it.

"Sleeping. Don't bother me."

Right. Jay rolled his eyes. Why would it say anything else.

Jay reached out to grab the doorknob, his protective blanket burrito covering coming undone as he did. He shivered slightly, and grimaced as he held the doorknob. It was cold. Way too cold for his liking. He'd try and get this done and over with as soon as possible.

A small spark of electricity shot out from his fingertips, and fried the electric lock that kept the door locked in its place. Bingo. Jay opened the door.

Kai's room was a mess first, and a living space second. Jay's face wrinkled up in mild disgust at the absolute disaster the room was in. It hadn't been cleaned in lord knew how long, and Jay wasn't even going to ask what the smell in the room came from. How Kai lived in this place was a mystery.

He stepped over a pile of shirts, and then over a stack of video games. Jeez, any more nonsense and he'd-

Jay tripped. He tripped and fell onto his face like he was a slapstick cartoon character. It looked like his fall should've been accompanied by a selection of funny toots and whistles. His blankets spread out around his fallen body like a sheet over a corpse, and they made a soft "whoompf" as they did so. Jay grumbled from his place on the floor.

"I come in here trying to provide some form of affection to my sleeping partner and this is the thanks I get?" He whispered angrily as he picked himself off the ground, "A messy room- which is just bad hospitality to anyone who'd want to visit- and my face on the floor. Absolutely terrible. The worst possible thing to happen to me."
He paused and thought briefly about Nadakahn.

"Second worst possible thing to happen to me." He corrected, "Second."

Now fully standing, with all of his blankets re-collected and put back on their place around his shoulders, Jay continued his march towards Kai's bed in the dead center of the room.

The placement of Kai's bed was, in terms of practicality, pretty good. The center of the room always stayed the warmest, so for an anacondrai, putting a bed in that spot would make the most sense. Aesthetically though? Yeah, that could use some work.

In the center of the bed, blankets both under and around him like some sort of nest, sat Kai. His long tail hung off the side of the bed, laying on top of a pile of dirty clothes. His breathing was extremely slow, matching the temperature of the room, and if Jay didn't know any better, it'd look like Kai was pretty much dead. But he did know better.

Jay stood there, watching Kai sleep for an amount of time that would probably be considered creepy by most people, and considered his line of attack.

Kai was curled around an empty spot in the bed, but he was holding onto a pillow. If Jay was smooth and careful enough about it, he might be able to wiggle the pillow out of Kai's arms, and himself into them. If not, then Kai would be pissed. So there was that. Jay took a deep breath, and then started to move.

With one arm, he shrugged off his blankets onto the bed. He was cold, but he wouldn't be for long.
Carefully, he crept up onto the bed beside his pile of blankets, making sure to not disturb any parts of the mattress that might squeak. Now came the tricky part.

Kai's arms were wrapped tight around the pillow, and his claws stuck into the sides of the fabric, making effective little hooks that made it damn near impossible to pry the thing away from him. Jay sat on the bed on his knees and frowned. The only way to do this would be to move Kai's hands manually, and not just from dragging the pillow away like he had originally planned. The risk factor of this nonsensical mission just skyrocketed.

But riskiness was never anything to hold Jay back, and he leaned forwards to gently, ever so gently, pry Kai's grip away from the pillow. Jay held his breath. So far so good.

And then one of Kai's bright red eyes shot open. Jay almost shat himself.

For a second, Kai looked lost. His eyes travelled around the room for a moment before settling on Jay. His pupils widened, then narrowed into their usual slit-like states.

"Dumbass," Kai mumbled sleepily, shoving the pillow he had been holding aside, "If you wanted to steal my heat you didn't have to break into my fucking room."

Jay's mouth opened, then closed before he could get any words out.

"Right. Of course I knew that. I'm one of the smartest ninja! Jay, ninja of intelligence, that's what they call me." He squinted, "Why are you laughing?"

Kai looked up mid laugh, and rolled his eyes.

"God I love you, and I'm trying really hard to be mad at you for waking me up, but it's just not working."

Kai rolled over onto his back, taking the blankets that had been wrapped around him with him, "I mean. Obviously it's not working. I haven't set you on fire yet."

"Right, right. I knew-" Jay stopped, "Yet?"

"Yet." Kai agreed, nodding, "Keep talking and it'll be sooner that you're a flaming ball of… of flames rather that later."

Now it was Jay's turn to roll his eyes, but he did so good naturedly as he curled up inbetween Kai's arms.

"Real intimidating there, Hothead." Jay said, leaning up into the heat that Kai was generating from his element.

Kai only hummed in response, holding Jay and letting his tail curl inbetween Jay's legs, trapping him in place. Jay could already tell that Kai was falling back to sleep.

He just hoped that Cole or Nya wouldn't be the ones to find them like this. God knew he had had enough teasing for this lifetime and the next.