Haha, this was supposed to be for Halloween, but I only finished it today...^^; woops.
And Wings of Glass is going to be updated as soon as my beta finishes editing it! ^D^ for anyone who cares...
Tomorrow I go back to school ;^; NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I needed to post this to cheer me up, along with anyone else going back tomorrow. Best of luck!
A coat wrapped tighter around its owner, the white fleece doing little help to a creature made of wires and gears. However the subconscious can trick the body's nervous system quite well, so Zane pulled the coat tighter. His boots scuffed up with the dirt they kicked up, but it was illogical. It was all illogical. He had recognized the abnormal emotions for his teammate before, but only now had he had the time to himself to think of such feelings.
The sound of screaming children echoed in the distance. A few years ago, Lloyd and Jay would likely be mixed in with those kids, however since Lloyd had aged, he would celebrate with his "Brothers and Sisters of the Cove" and disappear into the woods. Now Nya was forced to oversee the light saber—adorned ninja of lightning, Cole tagging along in hopes of scoring a kiss. From Nya or Jay, though, the nindriod was unsure.
Kai volunteered to hand out the candy. This left Zane free to do as he pleased. Normally this meant accompanying whoever was left with the uneventful task of delivering sweets to the trick-or-treaters, but this year was different. He had been irrationally avoiding Kai for the past week and the last thing he wanted to do was spend two hours of discussing this with children constantly interjecting with the same, corny phrase: "Trick-or-Treat!"
No, no, it was best to figure out how he even felt before bringing up such a subject. After all, Lloyd had accidentally found out his little secret with a horrid, intoxicating game of truth-or-dare. How he wished Lloyd would inform him more of what happened during those blank spaces in his memory rather than coaxing him to relay the knowledge on this night.
"Tonight's a special night, Zane, filled with magick and mystery! A perfect time to tell Kai how you feel!"
How did he feel, anyway?
"I'm not sure I understand what you mean, Lloy-"
"You'll understand. After all, tonight is when the vail is thinnest and creatures of all types may share their knowledge!"
Sometimes Lloyd was a lot wiser than he led on to be. Zane did not think then was one of those times.
He walked a little further down a dirt path and watched as one of the robin flow off of its tree branch. How odd. Shouldn't it be nesting? He watched as the red-feathered avian flew off its branch to another, harder to see bird whose brown feather blended in perfectly with the rest of the tree. Mating instincts do harden one's soul, the ice ninja supposed. If he hadn't known better, he would've considered those feelings to be his own. Of course robots can't mate.
This trail began to lead him off the main road more and more. Soon all those little kiddies were like the female robin and blended with the sound of rushing cars and crickets in the far off distance. He continued, continued until the trees grew denser and denser, then eventually opened into a small clearing, the grass and wild flowers still bold as ever despite the freezing cold, with a single large stump bringing all eyes to the center.
The nindriod was honestly shocked to find someone there at all. This was his hard to find place- the path had ended a while back and it was nearly impossible to find without knowing what you're looking for, his-
Stop being irrational.
He sat down next to this figure, this person who was difficult to make out in such low light. One feature he was able to distinguish was the lack of a jacket, or sleeves at all, for that matter.
"Aren't you cold?" Zane asked this figure who turned at his voice. Apparently the male (lack of breasts was fairly obvious) had not heard his footsteps in the leafless grass.
"Zane?" the man asked in a familiar voice, his spikey brunette hair reaching for the sky.
"Kai?" This was quite the surprise, alright, "What are you doing here?"
"You keep avoiding me. I need to know what's going on."
"But how were you able to locate me in such an area?"
"The falcon showed me," he pointed to the robotic betrayer, "She's worried, too. And I think Cole's starting to notice."
"What about the candy?"
"Sensei's taking care of it. The kids prefer old dudes dressed as vampires anyway."
Zane felt his energy source create at an abnormally fast rate. It must be malfunctioning- Kai would not hurt his own teammate, would he?
"What's wrong, Zane?"
"I'm…not sure, actually. My systems begin to speed up when around you, and I'm afraid they may wear out." That last part didn't sound right, but it was much easier to say than the rest of his sentence.
"You should have Jay look at that."
"I suppose it would be wise."
"Yeah…" the hot-head gazed up at a glowing white disk illuminating their sky.
"You didn't answer my question, though. Aren't you cold?"
"Cold? I'm the ninja of fire! I haven't been cold in…a long time."
What was this new emotion? Jealousy? "I see. That sounds nice."
"Are you kidding? I HATE it! I'm always hot!"
A play on words crossed the blonde's mind, but he discarded it.
"Then you do not like the summer?"
"Are you kidding? I hate it!"
"That is surprising, but it makes sense."
"What about you? You like summer?"
"It is my most favorable season. I am opposite- my body produces little heat but an excessive amount of cold."
"So you're cold?"
"Yes, I am very cold."
Kai laughed, "We should try hugging sometime."
"Perhaps now is a good time."
"What?"
"Nothing." It was lucky for both of them that the casted shadows shielded their pinking cheeks from visibility.
"Actually, I'd like that." Zane's processor reasoned that the other's first suggestion hadn't meant to be serious, but his second did.
"I…don't mind." His pressure sensors said otherwise. Lying is illogical.
Kai raised his arm and rested it on Zane's shoulders, then leaned in his head to the taller's cool body, his ice calming Kai's constant heat and in turn Kai fed the other warmth. The ice ninja's battery fueled him at an alarming, unsynchronized pace. It was dangerous! If this continued, his circuits would surely overload! It was potential suicide to continue!
"Why are you comfortable with hugging myself when you are not at ease with anyone else?"
"Everyone else is too hot. And this isn't a hug."
"Didn't you say-"
"Changed my mind. This is better."
Something clicked. Something inside Zane's mainframe perhaps rotated a bit faster or wound a bit tighter or- it didn't matter. What mattered is that he knew what to do next.
"Kai?"
"Yeah?"
"Would you enjoy partaking in this more often?"
Kai blinked twice, "Are you asking me out?"
Zane felt his cheeks flush even further than they already were which was another illogical function his father had kept from the human model. Blushing was used to attract a mate, but robots…
"I don't believe so; I would just like to know if you wanted to hug more often."
"Zane, that's going out."
"Huh? I don't believe-"
"That's slang for dating."
"O-oh," the nindriod bluffed. He knew perfectly well what "going out" meant, so why stall? That's irrational.
"Is that really alright, though? Dating is to sample marriage, which is society approving of two people breeding. However, two males cannot breed, let alone between a human and a creature of metal."
The pyro ninja rolled his amber eyes, "No one cares about that!"
"On the contrary, I have looked upon the internet at several people throughout Ninjago that do not believe it natural for two same-gendered humanoids to wed."
"Zane, stop looking at the internet to form opinions! There are stupid people in the world that you don't need to talk to because they feel the need to stick their nose in everyone's business and- uh, don't listen to them. Marriage is supposed to be how you feel. No one else."
"But what about the person of whom you're wedding? Do their emotions not matter?"
Once again Kai's eyes rolled up to the sky, "You know what? Just stop talking."
It was illogical and irrational. All of it. The hugging, the kissing, the warm words and lovely eyes…all of it. Irrational and illogical.
But neither of them mind.
(Oh, and Lloyd later ran by them with sparkles and disappearing-into-the-shadows-ness, whispering into their ears, "A maaaaaaagickal night~!" but that's another story).