Chapter 9: Arguments

"Ouch!" Cairos yelped, the wound on his head seeming to work against the T infusions. Keyok winced, somehow feeling his boyfriend's pain.

"You squeal like a girl, Cairos." Onewa shut up when he noticed Keyok had removed his hand from Cairos' head and now held a flame.

"Hey, Nokama! You're the resident healer!" called Keyok. "Stop screwing around with Matau and get over here!"

"First of all, watch your mouth." Nokama approached Keyok. "Second, how many times did I tell you not to play with fire?"

"I'm not playing!" protested Keyok. "Onewa insulted Cairos and I was about to light that stubborn ass on fire!"

Nokama sighed loudly. She tried to inspect the wound. It was unfortunately on the left side of Cairos' head, lost somewhere in his soft midnight curls.

"Cairos, I hate to say this." Nokama took a deep breath and paused. "I can't get to the wound, your hair is in the way and…"

Cairos interrupted. "It's fine. I can cut it myself if it makes you feel better."

Nokama dropped her head.

"I'll take that as a yes." Cairos took out his pocket knife and grabbed the hair near the wound. "Nokama, if you don't want to watch me butcher my hair, look away now." Once he saw Nokama look away, he grabbed a handful of dark curls and sliced it as close as he could to his scalp. He repeated the process until he had a one-sided undercut.

Keyok whistled low. "Cairos… can I say you look even hotter with an undercut?"

"Ha, thanks Keyok. Nokama, you can look now."

Nokama's hands glowed peacock blue, a sign she was going to use her water abilities. Specifically healing. She channeled the energy into her fingers and ran her hands over the close-cut section - there was the wound.

"Ow, ow, ow…" Cairos gasped as the cool energy penetrated the heat of the wound.

At that moment Keika arrived with Ronin and Haidie. The two youngest members of Squadron AV-01 looked like they had been caught sneaking Sunflare Squares out of the candy jar. Keika, ever the responsible one, was chewing them out.

"Haidie, Ronin, I told you not to combine your new elemental abilities. So what do you do? You decide to throw mud at Shane."

"Captain Disaster was being bossy again!" countered Ronin.

"Yeah, just because his dad handed him a fancy sword back home doesn't mean he knows everything." Haidie added.

"Shane's a member of the squad just like we are, and I expect you to give him the same level of respect that you would give any other public defender." Keika scolded.

"Now you're being bossy!" Ronin complained, folding his arms.

"Would all of you be quiet, or do I need a downpour to convince you?" snapped Nokama. Cairos sucked in air through his teeth, feeling the water heat up suddenly. Nokama noticed, and focused her energy back to healing Cairos' wound.

"A downpour sounds like a good idea right now…" Keyok muttered. Normally he bickered endlessly with Shane. Although he couldn't imagine throwing mud. That was just a low blow.

"Shane, please let me do this for you?" Laney was trying to convince Shane to get in the hot spring and wash the mud off. His mission threads were a nano-fabric that practically cleaned itself, but his skin and hair were a different story.

"I can bathe myself." insisted Shane. "You just want to see me with my shirt off."

Laney couldn't argue with that. But she had one last weapon in her arsenal, and it was bound to work. She looked down at her own jumpsuit and slowly unzipped it from her neck to her hips. Then she stepped out of it and sunk into the hot spring, leaning her head back to make eye contact with Shane.

"Oh no, not the starry eyes," Shane grumbled, "but you've convinced me. I'll come in, on one condition…"

The cut on Cairos' head was now fully healed. Nokama had gone to check on Matau, and Keyok was playing "fuzzy fuzzy." Cairos wasn't sure whether to be amused or annoyed. It did feel nice though.

"Do you know where Laney and Shane went?" asked Nuju, interrupting the moment. Whenua was with him.

"You have a crush on her..." Whenua sang.

"I should start calling you LC instead of Librarian." Glacier blue eyes glared into deep green ones. "Never mind, Nokama said the kindergarten trainees usually behave when Matau shows up."

"Yeah that's because they think she'd be better with Vakama." Onewa had returned to the group. "I have no interest in ships."

"You're from Po-Metru, of course you don't care about ships." said Nuju.

"Ship means a relationship, stargazer, not like a boat." Onewa snapped.

"If you have no interest, then how do you know what that means?" challenged Vakama. He had arrived with Onewa, after having a confusing vision.

Onewa shot back, "Just because I don't want romantic love for myself doesn't mean I can't read about it." He realized his mistake too late, as Cairos and Keyok started laughing and asking embarassing questions.

"Oh this is golden!" crowed Cairos. "Onewa, are you more into smut or fluff?"

"And what's your main fandom?" Keyok followed up immediately.

"Ooh, share your favorite pairing, preferably slash! We need help spicing things up!" Cairos added.

"Shut up, both of you!" Onewa was already losing what little patience he had left. Vakama was smirking, realizing he had blackmail that he could use against his rival. "Not a word, Vakama!"

"Onewa reads fanfic?" Shane had entered the conversation, amusement dripping from his voice. "I suppose you've seen something about me and Laney, under our real names of course."

"I wish I hadn't…" Onewa muttered. "Some of those stories can get explicit."

Laney saw an opportunity, "Like... bathing in a hot spring?"

Shane blushed, while Onewa gagged. "Those are the worst!"

Nokama and Matau came back, holding hands. The two saw everyone arguing about something, many of them taking sides.

"That does it!" Nokama yelled. She took some of the moisture in the air and caused a massive downpour, soaking everyone except herself and Matau.

"Much-thanks, love-dear. Hey, I spot-noticed a hot spring..."

Nokama gave Matau one of her signature teacher glares. "Matau...you're lucky you're so handsome."