It all began with a knock on the door early one Tuesday morning.

Cole answered, muscles tensed just in case of a threat. However, he opened up the door to see a familiar face.

"Ah, we meet again," Karen smiled, dressed in the same uniform that Cole had first met her in. "I am not here to merely deliver a letter, however. Is Zane here?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure," Cole blinked, and let go of the door handle, beckoning Karen inside. She followed, and inspected the environment that her prince had been living in. It was a little too worn down for her taste, but it would do. Cole peeked in each room before leading Karen past, and eventually came to Kai's room, where Zane had been staying for the vast majority of his time on the Bounty.

He cracked open the door, and was greeted by the incredibly wholesome sight of the two curled up in bed, Kai's hand gently wrapped around Zane's waist. Cole knocked on the door, and Zane shot up, wide awake. At the sight of Karen, he scrambled out of bed, a red tinge covering his cheeks.

"Karen! I, uh, how are you?"

Kai sat up, very tired and very confused.

"What's going-"

"Zane! You seem to be doing well."

"Better, I suppose."

Both of them stared in awkward silence.

"Zane, can I talk to you? Privately?"

"Of course."

The two travelled out to the deck, the sun rising gently, casting them in a faint light.

"I'm going to ask you point blank, Zane," Karen glanced over him, seeing the slightly worn pajamas and old slippers. "When will you be ready to return to the castle?"

"I- I.." Zane faltered, and she sighed.

"Zane, I don't want to be the bad guy here," She crossed her arms, and Zane felt his stomach flip with nerves. "You have to go back to the palace eventually. The longer you stay here, the harder your transition to the throne will be. You have the potential to be an amazing ruler, but you accept that you have to leave the ninja first."

"But Kai-"

"Either he goes back with you or you go without him," She insisted, and Zane felt like something inside of him shattered. She sighed. "Zane, buddy, I shouldn't have let you come out here. I should've realized that giving you a taste of freedom would just make palace life hurt more."

Zane nodded, but he didn't know if it was in agreement or acknowledgment.

"I won't make you leave right now," She promised, and the prince felt a little relief at the statement. "But I'm just letting you know that it will hurt less if you leave on your own. Start distancing yourself, and you'll be better off."

She gave the prince a quick hug, and despite the circumstances, he returned it.

"Just try and help yourself, please. I'll be back in a week or so to see how you're getting on."

"Okay," He smiled grimly, and she nodded, leaving as quickly as she had arrived.

Zane walked back into Bounty solemnly, and Kai was almost in a frenzy when he returned.

"What happened? Are you okay?" The Fire Ninja clasped the hands of his boyfriend tightly, and Cole looked on, equally as concerned.

"I'm fine," Zane swallowed the urge to spill everything to his friends, trying to stifle the shaking of his hands. "I'm fine."

"What did she say to you?" Kai growled, looking like he wanted to go out there and physically fight the captain of the guard herself. "I swear, I'll-"

"That's enough, Kai," Zane soothed, making sure his posture was straight to be as close to his boyfriend's height as he could. "You don't need to threaten her. Threatening her would be a really bad idea, actually."

"Yeah, fine," The Fire Ninja relented, furrowing his eyebrows in the general direction of the captain. "But really, what did she say to you? She wouldn't come all the way out here for nothing."

"Right," Cole nodded, imagining how long the trek must've been.

"I can't tell you," Zane insisted, his gaze firm.

"But why not? We're your friends," The Earth Ninja insisted, which made the prince bristle.

"Zane, you're worrying me," Kai's tone rose skeptically, scanning his boyfriend for any obvious body language.

"I said I can't tell you. There's no room for argument, that was an order," He brushed past the two, throwing his gaze back over his shoulder. "In fact, let's call it a royal order, shall we?"

Just like that, the door was shut, and the two ninja stared at it in silence.

"Kai," Cole eventually asked calmly, looking over at the Fire Ninja. "What was that?"

"I would tell you if I knew," Kai quirked his mouth. "To be fully honest, I'm pretty lost here."

"Yeah," The Earth Ninja agreed, nodding in agreement. "We'll see how this goes."


The habits started returning on a very small scale. What was once a light-hearted morning routine was more like a mourning routine, with Zane fixing his collar and his hair to the point where Kai didn't even know what he was checking for, because it was already pretty immaculate to him. Zane had also swapped out his casual clothing for his pressed dress shirt and pants, which he had picked up secretly without Kai knowing.

Any attempts at conversation by the brunette were essentially shot down by his boyfriend's disinterested nods and hummed replies. To be honest, it was really starting to piss Kai off.

"Can you at least act like I'm worth talking to?" Kai snarked, and only regretted it a little as Zane looked at him with an equal mixture of annoyance and hurt.

"You are, but I cannot become distracted," Zane sighed deeply, more of a signal to himself than Kai, before moving to clean under his nails, which he had painted with a singular clear coat of Nya's nail polish to keep them shiny.

"Stop preening then and look at me," Kai reached over and turned his boyfriend to the side, so they were facing each other. "Do you want to go get coffee or something? I know you love that one place in Ninjago City, and it's not too far from here."

"No, thank you," The prince even disappointed as he replied, and part of Kai flared up in anger at whatever Zane's inner voice was telling him to do.

"Okay, fine. I'll see you later then, I'm going to go train," Kai nodded curtly, and he was out the door before he realized that his skin was burning in rage, his tan fingertips slowly turning crimson with heat.


This pattern continued over the course of a few days, Zane's attitude turning more and more frigid and his responses formal as the crew attempted to recover whatever personal progress had been made in the last few months.

The apex of the issue happened about a week later, when the duo was getting ready for bed, Kai having already crawled under the covers with a hefty yawn.

"You coming?" He slurred towards his icy companion, who was preening in the mirror. The prince glanced over, in the middle of straightening the collar of his pajamas.

"Yes," Zane stated dryly, but didn't stop his routine, hyper-fixated on any little thing that seemed even remotely out of place. Kai just let him be, turning back to his phone, scrolling through his social media lazily. After about five minutes, Kai set his phone down again.

"Zane, really, come to bed. It's late," Kai insisted, but Zane shook his head, now folding his clothes in his drawer, despite them being folded perfectly before. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," The heir furrowed his brow for a split second, tone unwavering.

"Okay," Kai sat up with an oomph, turning towards his boyfriend with bleary eyes. "What's wrong? I know you like keeping up your appearance, but what's with the obsessiveness lately?"

"I've been getting too slack with my hygiene and my organization," Zane insisted, placing a shirt back in its respective drawer. "I seem to have forgotten that I cannot be simply one of you."

"Zane," Kai practically leapt out of bed, tugging his partner up into his arms. "Why are you like this all of a sudden? I- I thought you had finally adapted to living with us and now you're acting like your parents!"

Zane didn't respond, going stiff in Kai's embrace, eyes trained on the floor.

"You wouldn't understand, Kai."

"I can try," The Fire Ninja practically begged, gently tugging his companion towards the bed. "Is this because of what Karen said when she came over?"

Zane nodded, and Kai realized with horror that the prince was crying as he swiped at the moisture with the back of his hand.

"I don't like ignoring you and our friends," Zane said quietly, and Kai eased them into sitting on the bed, moving to sit beside his beau with their hands entwined. "But I need to. This can't work otherwise."

"What can't work?"

"As much as I don't want to leave, I have to," The ice wielder was shaking, eyes squeezed shut to hopefully prevent any tears from leaking out. "I- I've heard that people think I'll be a better ruler than my parents, but I don't know how-"

Zane cut himself off with a choked back sob, curling in on his boyfriend more, a straight week of avoiding any intimacy weighing on his heart like a stone. Kai wrapped his arms around him once more, but stayed quiet to let Zane talk.

"Going back to the palace means giving up my freedom and all of you. However, I have to go back," Zane took as deep of a breath as he could. "But Karen told me I should start distancing myself so it's easier to go. I've become too attached to the crew on the Bounty. She brought to light that you go with me or I leave you behind, and I am in no position to make that decision for you."

"I don't care what happens to Ninjago," Kai gripped Zane tightly, scared he would disappear if he did otherwise. "You come first. The minute you sacrifice your health for the country is when you've gone too far, Zane."

"Doesn't matter," Zane grumbled, tired eyelids weighing heavily on his irises. "I could want to kill myself every day I'm in the palace, but I'm there for the people, not me."

"We'll- we'll figure something out," Kai nodded slowly, slowly lowering Zane down to the sheets with him. "But for now, we need to sleep. And tomorrow, we're going on a date, no buts."

The prince nodded sleepily, curling into his boyfriend's arms at long last, falling asleep quickly as anxiety still swirled in his gut.