"We did good today, Nya," Jay said, wiping his hands free of the imaginary dirt he had acquired throughout the day. "Three screens done, now we have two more to go."
The female samurai laughed. "Everything's faster when you have someone helping you out," said, winking at the blue ninja.
Jay couldn't help but blush. Even after knowing her for several years now, just looking at the raven-haired girl made him get all tongue-tied.
When the couple entered the living area, the first thing they noticed was Lloyd and Sam sitting on the floor, playing video games.
"Hey guys," Nya said, looking around the room. There was no sign of Kai.
"Hey Nya. Hey Jay," Lloyd said, turning around to greet his friends.
"Where's Kai?" the samurai asked. She found it odd that her brother was more than ten feet away from Sam on his day off.
The green ninja shrugged. "Don't know. Haven't seen him since breakfast."
Jay and Nya exchanged confused looks, although the blue ninja had more insight into the situation than Nya did. First of all, Jay knew that Kai was still brooding over his feelings for Skylor, meaning that he was probably quieter than usual. But keeping his distance from Sam? That was not a good sign.
"Eh, he's probably just busy," the blue ninja said, trying to sound as casual as possible. While he felt bad for Sam, he knew that whatever was going on had to stay between her and Kai. If his brother was questioning his feelings for her, then he certainly wouldn't be the one to tell her.
Jay cleared his throat nervously. "So, uh, what have you guys been up to?" he asked, scratching his head.
"I invited Sam to play video games with me," Lloyd said. "Since she really had nothing else to do."
Sam nodded in agreement. "Usually Kai wants to do something, but I guess he didn't feel like doing anything today."
Nya frowned. Kai always jumped at the chance to do something with her. What was different about today?
Before she could ponder the question further, they heard the sound of a door opening, and, sure enough, the red ninja walked into the living room, wearing his civilian attire.
"Hey Kai," Jay said. "Missed you this afternoon."
"Yeah," Nya piped up, "Where did you go, brother?" Unlike Jay, the samurai was quite blunt.
Kai glanced at his friends, each of them watching him expectantly, waiting for an answer.
"I was out," Kai said plainly, not wanting to elaborate on the subject. He then yawned. "I think I'm gonna go take a nap now."
Jay raised an eyebrow. "Okay, guess we'll see you at dinner then," he said, glancing at Nya, whose arms were crossed defiantly.
Something was definitely up.
The red ninja nodded at Sam, who had a game controller in her hand. She must've been playing video games with Lloyd this afternoon. He had wondered what she would do while he was gone.
Without saying another word, Kai disappeared into the hall, leaving the four young adults to talk amongst themselves.
"Well that was weird," Lloyd commented, breaking the silence that had formed around the group.
Nya nodded. She knew her brother was generally a private person, so whatever he was thinking wasn't about to come out anytime soon.
Sam sighed. "Well, I guess I better go make dinner," she said, standing up from her seat on the floor. "I was thinking fish. What do you guys think?"
"Fish sounds good," Jay said, glad to be talking about something other than Kai. "Do you want us to help?"
Sam's eyes widened in surprise, slightly taken aback by the offer. "Um, sure, you can if you want."
"Yeah, we'd be happy to help," Nya said, enthusiasm in her voice. She knew that Sam was a novice cooker, so she thought she may have wanted assistance.
The blonde smiled, appreciative of her friends' eagerness to help.
"Thanks, guys. That means a lot to me."
"No prob," Jay said, waving her thanks aside. He then rubbed his hands together. "Now, let's get cooking."
The three friends made their way into the kitchen. Sam immediately went to the fridge and began rummaging for the fish in the freezer.
"And, uh, I can help too."
Sam turned around to find Lloyd standing on the other side of the counter, scratching the back of his head awkwardly.
"Thanks, Lloyd," she said, flashing the green ninja a grateful smile as she took the frozen fish out of the fridge and set the package on the counter.
"Just tell us what to do and we'll do it," Nya said. "I can make side dishes if you want."
"And Lloyd and I can set the table," Jay said, grabbing some plates from the cabinet. It was true that setting the table required some effort, as there were eight spots that needed to be set, and it was tradition for the ninja to have the table set properly for the evening meal.
"Sure. Anything you can do will help," Sam answered, already gathering the ingredients to cook the fish. She was planning to make miso-glazed cod, which only required mirin, miso paste, sugar, and olive oil, so there weren't that many ingredients to collect, but as inexperienced as she was with cooking, she was glad for the extra pairs of hands.
After their long day of being out and about in the city, Zane and Cole came home to the smell of dinner cooking in the kitchen.
"Mm, what's cooking this time?" the earth ninja asked, sniffing the air as the two walked into the living area.
"Fish. Cod specifically," Sam replied, who was working alongside Nya in the kitchen, trying to finish preparing the side dishes. Nya was busy making fried rice while Sam was furiously chopping vegetables for the salad.
"Sounds good to me. I'm starving," Cole said, as plopped down on the couch next to Jay.
Lloyd had returned to playing video games after an exhausting table-setting lesson with the blue ninja, who had taken his job as table-setter very seriously. Every eating utensil had had to be perfectly straight, set a certain distance apart. Yes, the blue ninja had been picky. But it was worth it, since he had gotten to help Sam.
"So what'd you guys do today?" Jay asked, turning to his black-clad brother, who had decided to wear his street clothes for the day.
"Well," Cole began, "we first went to the music store 'cause I wanted to check out if there were any new albums I wanted, which there weren't any. Then Zane wanted to go the book store, so we went there for a short while/time. Then we went to go see the newest Batman movie that Kai and Sam saw a couple weeks ago, which was good actually," he explained. "Then we came back here."
Zane nodded in agreement. "Yes, unfortunately I too was not able to find anything that appealed to me at the book store, but I did enjoy the movie, which was quite action-packed indeed."
"Sounds like you had fun," Jay said. "Me and Nya are more than halfway done with replacing the screens in the control room."
"Nice," Cole said, nodding in approval. He didn't know much about that kind of thing, but it sounded like a lot of work, which he could appreciate. "How about you, Lloyd?" Cole asked, turning to the green ninja sitting on the floor. "What'd you do?"
"Eh, I just played video games," Lloyd answered, his eyes glued to the television screen. "Sam joined me for a little while, but other than that, not much."
"Cool," the earth ninja said, his eyes wandering around the room. "Hey, has anyone seen Kai? Haven't seen him since breakfast."
"Yeah," Lloyd replied. "He went to his room to take a nap. He said he was out, but he didn't say where."
"Yeah, he was acting strange," Nya added, overhearing the conversation from the kitchen.
Cole frowned. "Hmm, wonder why," he thought aloud.
Jay shrugged, not bothering to give any suggestions. "Let's just hope he's better by dinner," he said. However, somehow the ninja of lightning knew that the issue was far from being resolved.
