It was an odd thing to watch a God sleep.

It was an odd enough thing to envision seeing as most people had a tendency of perceiving a God as a powerful, endless being. In written text, Gods were supposed to be protective, to be watchful- to never forfeit even a second of taking their eyes off of something; they were supposed to be all knowing, all watching.

And yet it wasn't always an accurate perception.

Kung Jin watched the man dozing next to him, taking note of how calm, how relaxed he seemed for the time being.

It was a good sign- a comforting one.

After their brief conversation before, he had made the suggestion that Fujin try to catch some shuteye. He didn't know how long exactly the man had been trying to calm the storm; he didn't know how much energy it took just to hold it off for this long- although one could presume that it wasn't a small exchange of power. Fujin had probably exerted most of his energy doing so, hoping to combat it against Raiden's unstable profile, all to no avail. And the latest release of his energy, the near freezing of the hallway, was just a small sign that something inside of him was wearing too thin.

And the last thing Earthrealm needed was two elemental Gods losing their stability.

Either way, after some mild arguing, Fujin ended up giving in to his suggestion easier than Kung Jin thought he would- not that he would complain.

Despite being cut off from the dormitory wing for the time being, the archives still offered a small guest room of such, which was where he had convinced the Wind God to stay. It would be cozy enough to serve as a temporary resting place, and Kung Jin had no doubts that Fujin had passed out here plenty of times before after one too many hours of countless research through the archives. The man had a habit of study- had a habit of going through entire book shelves without realizing it.

Kung Jin sat close by him, sitting amongst the tangled sheets, wrangled blankets, and pillows, and not feeling an ounce of wanted sleep himself. He had slept enough already; it felt like he might go crazy if he tried to close his eyes again. He had assured Fujin that he would rest but only because the God insisted that he looked equally exhausted- that he looked like death in walking form.

(And once again, Kung Jin had no doubts that he did).

Once Fujin had fallen asleep though, settling well into a deep trance, Kung Jin retracted his assurance and promise of such.

What the God didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

The silence of the room only seemed to be highlighted by the consistent pattering of rain outside- although it was much lighter and weaker this time around. Perhaps the storm was finally running out of steam, or maybe it was just the eye of the storm starting to settle over the temple. Either or.

The thunder had turned into a soft rumble now.

And any meteors that had been pulled out of the atmosphere by the unstable energy had finally burnt up and been reduced to ash just before making land fall.

The silence was comforting for once.

Kung Jin's attention was pulled away by the soft buzzing of the communicator nearby, the same one Fujin had used to speak with Master Bo' Rai Cho an hour or so before. It must've been the man calling back again- Kung Jin didn't know who else would call otherwise. General Blade had the other communicator and could access this same frequency, but he highly doubted that she would call up here; she really had no reasons to.

While the thought of speaking to someone else wasn't exactly a pleasant idea at the moment, Kung Jin reluctantly got up to answer it regardless.

After all there was no telling what news might be on the other line.

And if it continued to make so much noise, it would risk waking Fujin.

Getting to his feet, Kung Jin moved to where the Wind God had placed the device on a nearby table, before he carefully scooped it up and stepped out of the room with it. If it was the Shaolin Master calling, he would just have to take a message; he wouldn't be waking up the God over something trivial, and Master Bo' Rai Cho usually had nothing important to say anyways.

Stepping out into the hallway, he switched the communicator on as soon as he was out of range- and immediately heard a voice chime in at the opened connection.

"Anybody up there in Wind City?"

The voice caught him off-guard, and the mix of shock and surprise of it was enough to elicit a quiet chuckle. "Why are you calling up here, Cas? And more importantly, how are you calling up here?"

"Oh! Ha- kind of surprised I managed to get someone," Cassie spoke from the other line, sounding a mix of amused and humored at the sudden conversation. "I borrowed mom's tele-communicator thing and got her to request a frequency line to the Wind Temple from Master Bo' Rai Cho. I didn't really think that it'd go through so imagine my surprise. So let me guess and say that things are just as bad up there as they are down here."

Cassie had to have jumped through a lot of hoops to get all of those strings pulled.

It was... something worth noting.

And her immediate spill into a conversation was another.

"Yeah, something like that I guess," Kung Jin answered. "It's kind of hard to say though since I haven't been on the ground in a few days. I'd imagine the storm's gotten worse down there since."

"Oh yeah, you could say that," she replied. "The whole Special Forces base relocated down into the emergency bunkers a couple nights ago- and let me just say that living underground is not all that it's cracked up to be. They make it seem so safe and fun in all of those post-Apocalyptic movies but this shit can drive a person crazy."

Somehow Kung Jin never really saw that trend as being something that would be called 'fun'.

But then again Cassie grew up with an entirely different view of Hollywood movies.

The storm bunkers probably seemed more fun on-set.

"How long are you guys going to stay down there?" he questioned.

"Not much longer- at least not for me or Jacqui," Cassie answered. "We're gonna head out later today and head back home for a bit. I can't stand to be around here and I think mom wants me out of the war zone for now."

While part of him wanted to believe that that statement made sense, he was a little more surprised by it.

General Blade always seemed adamant about keeping Cassie close to the SF base.

"How's the General doing anyways?" Kung Jin decided to press- knowing that the last time he had seen the woman... she wasn't exactly in good shape. He wasn't officially a part of the Special Forces- not through paperwork or official signatures anyways. General Blade always quipped that he was 'on loan' from the Shoalin, which was a more accurate portrayal of how his work was integrated with the SF right now.

He also figured that that was as close to humor as the woman would get.

Still, General Blade had pulled out a lot cards and stops during this operation- and had gotten fucked over in the end regardless.

The least he could do was show concern for her well-being.

Cassie let out a low whistle from her end and that seemed to be answer enough.

"Hard to say," the woman started. "Mom's always been hard to read- unless she's like super pissed anyways. But lately she's just... she's been really quiet and she's not talking much about what happened, and to be honest it's kind of scary. I know she's pissed off about the whole thing, about how things went down, but she's being oddly reserved about it now. I don't know if something else happened while we were at the temple, or if she's hiding something from me- I tried to talk to her about it but she wouldn't budge. I tried to convince her to leave with me, to take a few days off to rest, but she wouldn't even consider it."

There was a pocket of silence.

A deep sigh that continued after.

"Believe it or not, I think she's worried."

"In her defense it would be hard not to be," Kung Jin reminded.

"I know- I know she's worried about dad, even though she won't outright admit it. And I know she's worried about Raiden, and about all of us," Cassie continued. "I just, I'm not sure what's going through her head right now. Maybe she feels like she fucked up and failed everyone, but it's not every day that the Dark Lord Shinnok shows up out of the blue."

"Or the Shirai Ryu."

A harsh scoff crackled the line between them.

"Don't remind me," Cassie sighed, "that's like a cursed word to bring up around here."

Kung Jin only saw the aftermath of the ordeal but the thought of the Shirai Ryu suddenly attacking the Special Force's base was still a hard concept to grasp. As was why the Grandmaster himself would go through and injury his own allies just to get to Quan Chi. In the small scheme of things, it was for revenge, which had alway been Grandmaster Hanzo's achilles heel.

But in the big picture... the man just about ruined everything they had worked for.

The reputation of the Shirai Ryu was smeared now.

Slandered by the hands of its own Grandmaster.

"... How's Takeda handling it?" Kung Jin questioned, a mix of concern for the man, but also hesitant to know the answer. To say that Takeda was in the center of the mess was a bit of an understatement. His clan, the one he had grown up with, was now marked as traitors to Earthrealm. He bore their symbol, now cast to dirt by no one else but themselves.

"Horrible," Cassie answered- the worst case scenario coming out on her tongue. "He's really confused and fucked up over the whole thing- even he can't quite get his head around what had happened, or why it happened. I think Kenshi's trying to save face around him by not saying anything about it, but I overheard mom talking about him earlier. She said you could feel his energy suffocating the place. Takeda's talked on and off about it too- he knows Kenshi's hiding something, but he can't get a reading on him. He's mentioned a few times that his dad's good at hiding shit, so there's no telling what's going through his head, which is kind of scary. I don't really want to be locked in an underground bunker with a pent-up telekinetic madman."

That sounded like a bad thing waiting to happen.

But Takahashi was more than a madman now and days.

And General Blade would be able to keep him calm enough to save everyone.

"I can't fault Takeda for being angry, you know? He's in a tough spot right now, and things were pretty shit enough as they were without all of this on top of it. I don't think he wants to think about it right now, but it's kind of hard to when he's literally surrounded by the aftermath."

Yeah, Kung Jin couldn't fucking blame him.

First it was them getting the shit kicked out of them in Outworld, which was closely followed by being imprisoned- and then escaping just in time to find out that Shinnok had gotten free from his medallion and was corrupting Earthrealm through means of the Jinsei chamber.

And then there was the shock of finding out that they were the only ones who could get to the Jinsei Temple in time, and even then they barely scraped by by the skin of their teeth just to reach the temple.

And then the Revenant showed up.

And Shinnok was there.

And Earthrealm was just barely saved.

The adrenaline of victory could only keep them going for so long though.

Everything eventually rounded up to the weeks spent in the hospital where they learned that the clan Takeda had grown up with had pulled a coup and turned on their Special Forces allies.

Where they learned that Grandmaster Hanzo himself had injured General Blade, C.O. Cage, and even Takeda's own father, the man who had rescued Hanzo from Scorpion decades before. The man that Hanzo had once called his own family, his own brother, and blood.

...

It must've felt like Takeda's entire world had fallen apart right then.

And there was no doubt that it still felt like that.

"You said you and Jacqui were leaving the base," Kung Jin started, "are you going to take Takeda with you?"

"Oh yeah, definitely- I can't leave him here with all this shit," Cassie replied. "Uncle Jax was kind of hesitant about us leaving, but I think that's more about Jacqui and Takeda than anything else. I mean I know the storm isn't going to be easy on us either, but I can't stay here. I can't stay underground under everyone's watchful eye for God knows how long this storm is going to last- I'll go fucking crazy. We all will."

Despite the sense of projected fear in the woman's voice, Kung Jin still found himself chuckling slightly at it.

Cassie had a knack for the dramatic twist on things, just like her father.

Although going crazy underground was a real threat to consider.

"What about you? How's everything going up top?"

Kung Jin mulled the question over, glancing slightly back at the closed door behind him- glad to know that nothing had yet to disturb Fujin for now. "Fine," he started, figuring simplicity was the best answer to keep to for now. "It's just... it's loud and sometimes things get to me."

"Yeah, same here," Cassie replied- seemingly admitted. "The bunker kind of mutes most of it, but... sometimes something will get through."

There was a slight pause.

A brief moment of silence- a moment of relating to what the other was saying.

A soft moment of relief in knowing that they weren't the only ones afraid of the crashing and thundering. That everyone else still jumped just the same- that they weren't the only ones carrying out the scars carved into their heads.

"So like... is your neck better?"

Kung Jin had to resist the urge to touch at the binding scar at the base of his neck once more; fingers itched, but he resisted. "Uh yeah, yeah, it's not so stiff anymore, and I can finally turn it without having to twist my shoulders with it," he answered. "How's your arm?"

"I'm still taking medication for the skin graft," Cassie replied. "It kind of sucks, but I guess it's not too bad. I don't have to keep the brace on it anymore at least so there's a silver lining in there somewhere. The donor site is pretty much healed at this point, and the doctor said that scarring should be minimal for both areas. It'll be a year or more for the skin to properly take and look normal again, but you know it beats being able to stare through my own bones."

Yeah, a cracking injury in the middle of the frozen forest had left the woman with less than half the necessary skin coverage on her left arm.

On-site treatment had been enough to keep the woman going, but hell it couldn't have been easy.

"So how's the Wind man doing?"

An odd sort of question coming from Cassie.

But with all the attention on Raiden at the moment there would be concerns in regard to his brother, who was having to keep things together in Raiden's absence.

"He's resting right now," Kung Jin answered, choosing to forgo other pieces of details for now. "He's been holding the storm off for a few days now, and while admirable, it wasn't doing much of anything in comparison to Raiden's power. He's uh... he's still pretty cut up about how things went down with Raiden, with Master Bo' Rai Cho, with..." and Kung Jin felt his own voice linger for a moment as though it was trying to figure out how to continue speaking from there, "- the Revenant."

"Everyone's alive. That's the main thing to remember here."

Cassie would kill him if Kung Jin said it, but he swore she sounded just like her mother then- just like General Blade.

He bit back his reserves, bit back the hesitation, and forced himself to ask while the moment was there.

"... How are the Revenant doing anyways?"

"Uh... hard to say," Cassie answered, a sort of drawn out sound in her voice. "They're locked up pretty tight right now, and no one's really allowed back there with them. Mom says they're doing good so far. I don't think she's expecting too much good news herself either, but anything is better than nothing at this point. I mean, they're still unconscious from the whole Jinsei thing, but they've been pretty stable from what I've heard. I wish I had more to tell you, but right now there's nothing too good, but nothing bad either."

Stale news at best then.

It didn't help, but Kung Jin supposed he had been looking for too much in the question.

He had no one but himself to blame for being disappointed.

"Oh- uh hey, it seems like we're getting ready to head out soon- Jacqui keeps waving at me," Cassie started. "I'll see if mom won't let me steal this thing from her- I doubt she needs it. Plus it's not much of a team getaway if we don't have the full team there."

"Well hey, maybe next time when there's not a storm threatening us," Kung Jin replied. "I'll keep this line open from my end though."

"Thanks, I'll call again soon, or if I hear anything," she remarked. "Take it easy, yeah?"

"Yeah, same to you."

The transmitter powered off when the conversation ended.

And Kung Jin found himself standing there for a few seconds, letting their entire conversation sort of echo and repeat itself over through his head.

It was crazy how the four of them had been at each other's throats when this whole mess started. Although in their defense, forcing together two Special Forces members, one of which was the General's own daughter, one Shaolin, and one Shirai Ryu into a random group was not necessarily the best idea. Just because their parents and relatives had played nice with each other didn't necessarily mean the same for them.

They were trying to make something of it now though so at least they had that.

They all made bad first impressions on each other, himself probably being the worst of them, but it seemed like they were putting those aside for now. They were all willing to start over again on the right foot.

Despite everything from before though even Kung Jin had to admit that he was still worried about the other three. It was always easier to check in with each other in person, always easier to crack jokes at each other's expense when they were face to face.

But it definitely felt different now.

It felt like things were far from being fine now that the comfort of being able to walk down the hallway to each other was gone.

...

Things would be okay though.

Shinnok had been defeated, Earthrealm had been saved, and they had survived all of it.

Kung Jin kept the string pulled taut, kept his arms steady, and his hands tight against the bow as he waited for the next disc to launch.

He kept his breath slow and concentrated, almost to the point of holding it, breathing just enough to keep his heart rate steady, and not pass out. His eyes were starting to strain from staring at the empty sky above the tree line, and just as he convinced himself to give a quick blink to relieve the tension, he heard the familiar 'sh-ink' of the launcher.

There was a slight catch of movement to his right and he released his arrow in response.

One perfectly calculated trajectory intersected another.

And he heard the successful crack of the clay disc breaking.

Giving out a heavy breath, Kung Jin dropped his bow just enough to relieve the tension in his arms- feeling the subtle ache in his fingers as well. Thankfully it was cool enough with the morning breeze that he wasn't out right breaking into a sweat, and he wasn't completely miserable under the morning sun. He knew it wouldn't last long though. But if he could get his practice time in before the afternoon heat rolled in then he could move inside to continue practice. He needed more time spent with controlled shots anyways.

Shaking himself out, he raised his bow once more and waited.

Only this time it wasn't the sound of the disc launcher that broke his concentration.

But rather the crunching sound of footsteps behind him.

Kung Jin stepped back and turned in one fluid motion, arrow still drawn back- and fingers twitching to release it.

He wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do other than potentially scare someone, but sneaking up on someone during practice wasn't exactly smart either. It was one of the leading causes of injuries and visits to the healers around the temple.

He ended up staring down the point of the arrow head at Fujin, who seemed just as equally surprised as him.

It had been awhile since the Wind God had come around and stayed longer than a few minutes at a time, and usually then it was just to drop in and speak with Master Bo' Rai Cho. Of course, the Shaolin Master blamed it on a minor crisis that the Protector Gods were having to deal with at the time- although the man never went into any more detail about it. And Kung Jin guessed that he didn't really care all too much about it either; God business was usually boring, took too long, and usually pertained to nothing- or at least, that was how Fujin had always described it.

(Whether or not it was true, it made him feel better knowing that he hadn't been the cause for the man's absence).

It would seem as though it had been taken care of though.

There was a brief pocket of tense silence before he dropped his bow.

"Careful there, Fujin- could've put one through your eye," Kung Jin remarked.

The Wind God chuckled lightly in response, breaking any lingering tension. "I highly doubt that."

A subtle tease, maybe a slight jab at the same time.

"I don't see why not," he started. "I've hit every target this morning so far."

"Yes, and while admirable, it's important to note that your targets don't exactly fight back," Fujin reminded, just as the crack of another disc being launched went off. The disc didn't make it very far as the God froze it in place mid-air- circulating the wind around it to keep it stationary. "And they can't quite manipulate your shots like I can."

Kung Jin gave a subtle groan. "Again, with the projectile-wind thing," he remarked, before he turned and drew the arrow back once more. He barely lined up his shot before he let it go- breaking the levitating disc in place. "Had I had known ahead of time, I would've invested my time and skills into something closer to the ground."

"Perhaps so, but I think you would only come to find out that nothing really escapes my influence."

He chuckled this time at the boasting remark as he made his way over to the disc launcher to shut it off- putting a few yards of breathing room between them for now. For his own sake as needed. "Let me guess, you had business with Master Bo' Rai Cho again?" Kung Jin asked over his shoulder, as he managed to catch the launcher just before it loaded up another disc. "And he either said that he was too busy, or he was just too drunk to talk right now, right?"

"You know, for someone who trains under his guidance, you do not speak too highly of Master Bo' Rai Cho," Fujin pointed out.

"Yes well, I unfortunately usually have to stand downwind of him, so-"

When Fujin laughed this time, Kung Jin was convinced it was out of sympathy and nothing else.

"Yes well, if you're not busy I'd like to borrow some of your time."

"Depends on what you want to talk about," Kung Jin replied, catching the slight questioning look from the other man as he slowly made his way back. "I've been studying Outworld laws and practices all morning- I'm not in the mood for political banter about the latest scandal going on over there. Or really any political banter at all. So if you've got something to talk about outside of any of that it's fine."

He felt like he had set himself up with that open-ended remark.

And such would be proven.

"Good, because I wanted to talk about the night of that skirmish," the Wind God started, "more specially what happened after it."

Kung Jin stilled slightly at the words, regretting now his choice for leaving the topic available for discussion. He guessed part of him was sort of hoping that the God would've forgotten about it by now, or that maybe Fujin would've just dropped it altogether. It was hardly... anything of importance, so there was no real reason to keep going back to it. Of course as the thought of such crossed his mind, even Kung Jin had to call himself out on his own bullshit.

Acting as though he himself hadn't gone back through the night a few times over by now.

There was no real sense in running from the topic any longer.

He was getting tired of doing it anyways.

If he just... got it over with now, it would be better for him in the long run; it would be better for the both of them.

And it would've been better if he had just gotten it over with from the start instead of avoiding it like he had been doing...

"Sure," Kung Jin offered as a weak response. "What about it?"

He kept the shift of power in Fujin's control, forcing the man to carry the weight of the conversation- somewhat forcing the man to make the decisions here. It was an asshole kind of move, even he had to admit that.

"Something happened that night that I think we both need to face."

Yeah that was one way of putting it.

(Unfortunately).

There was no denying his nerves at the moment as fingers fiddled with the etchings on his bow, following the hand-carved designs over and over again. An useless distraction but it was something to keep his hands preoccupied with. "I kissed you," Kung Jin admitted, surprised that he had managed to muster up such a direct response; at least it was easy enough to keep his tone flat. "That's what happened and..." a stutter, although thankfully small, "look, I'm sorry it had been, you know, forced on you. I was still pretty messed up from the fight and I wasn't thinking clearly."

It was the least that he could admit to.

And with all things given, he wanted to sound genuine about it.

"It's fine," Fujin assured, giving a breath of relief to the conversation. "Looking back on the matter and at my own behavior, I got the impression that I had lead you on, or had forced you into something-"

"It wasn't forced," Kung Jin assured in response, speaking a little quicker than he wanted to- than he intended to.

The Wind God gave a slight pause at the remark, seemingly perplexed, before the man spoke again. "... Then what was it?"

The question caught Kung Jin by surprise. The obvious sense of curiosity in the man's tone was enough to completely unbalance him- enough to leave him unable to respond for a passing moment or two as he tried to regain his footing. And his grip as he felt his bow nearly slip out of his hands. "What was... what?"

"You said that you kissed me and that it wasn't forced so... was it intentional?"

"Yeah."

The answer spilled out of him before Kung Jin had the chance to stop it, or at least consider the ramifications of it- or at least not seem so jumpy to answer. He wanted to kick himself for the response; he was getting too anxious, he was letting his guard down, and making mistakes. If he wanted to push through this conversation as easy and clean as possible than he needed to get himself under control.

Which was a lot easier said than done.

"I just- look, like I said before, I had just gotten back from that run, and things had gone unexpectingly bad. I was still breathing on adrenaline, and I was pissed off, and... you were there," Kung Jin started over again, not willing to admit to the slight stumble in his words now. "And you kept kissing me-"

"You said it wasn't forced-"

"It wasn't," he interrupted, "I just- I-"

Words were really starting to fail him now.

It felt like he was scrambling just to put enough of them together to form something halfway coherent.

This was a very delicate situation for him to deal with, that much was painfully obvious; he refused to run the risk of destroying what they already had between them- which up until now was nothing more than a friendship, a practical familial bond. Which was something he had to admit was more than anything he had shared with anyone else before. And he was perfectly content with leaving it at that.

But that night had given him a small glimpse of what it could be like.

And as much as he was trying to push it down, push it away, get rid of it... it was addictive.

"Jin?"

"Why did you kiss me back?" Kung Jin questioned instead- able to string that much together at least. Able to recall how Fujin could've (and maybe should've) pushed him away after that first kiss, but didn't. In fact the man had adhered to his request not once, but twice- and then a minor third as well. One time would've been a courtesy- an attempt to let the motion go given the circumstances.

But the rest was worth questioning.

If anything he felt like it was his turn to put the Wind God on the spot.

"Why wouldn't I?" Fujin replied, as though that alone was supposed to answer him at all.

"That doesn't- you can't answer my question with another question," Kung Jin objected, giving it a few seconds before the man's response dawned on him. Answering a question with a question gave no answers, but in this case it only left him with more than he was willingly to ask about. "Wait- what? What do you mean why wouldn't you?"

"Well now look who's answering a question with a question," Fujin remarked.

And Kung Jin swore that the man was playing with him now; he swore he saw the slightest of twitches on the corners of the man's lips.

It left him with the urge to curse the man, the words already forming in his throat. And perhaps it was the burning look that he shot the other man, but it seemed to cause the God to reel back a little.

A heavy sigh escaped the Wind God before he started to speak once more- a little quieter this time around. "I didn't like seeing you hurt like that," Fujin finally admitted. "I understand that it comes with the territory, that it comes with becoming a Shaolin, but... I wasn't expecting something to happen before your training was through. I wasn't expecting something to happen in Earthrealm- although our history would dictate otherwise. Your injuries weren't dangerous by any means, and the situation they came with was an one-time thing, but it started a thought process that I couldn't shake, that I couldn't get rid of. It made me realize that I..."

A pause.

A slight trail of the single word- hesitation even.

"I'm not prepared to lose you under any means so soon, or under any means at all."

Kung Jin stilled slightly at the soft confession, if one wanted to call it that, and let his eyes take the Wind God in- taking note of the man's quiet aura. There had been a subtle breeze that morning, one he had calculated against with every arrow, but now the air was still. The words were subtle, showing more concern for his well-being, for their companionship, giving a rare opening to the Wind God's own fears from the past.

But it was the context, the conversation, that the words were slipped in to that implied an answer to something else.

He couldn't help but to think that the Wind God was ageless; Fujin had been around for centuries upon centuries. This couldn't have been the first confession that the man had made, and the stories and rumors that usually followed him would provide ample enough evidence for such statement. One would think that for a man who had lived for so long, he would've been better equipped for situations like this. That Fujin would've been more experienced, more confident in his answer- that he wouldn't beat around the bush so much as get straight to the point.

But it all came back to context.

As much as he would've liked to, Kung Jin didn't fall into the easiness of the words. "If this is because of what happened with Kung Lao-"

"No-"

The question was barely off of his lips before he was cut off- but he had to know.

He had to make sure he wasn't seeing this in the wrong light before it went any further.

"This has nothing to do with him," Fujin assured. "This feeling is solely between you and I."

Kung Jin waited; he was expecting the God to go somewhere with the words, with the remark, to continue whatever thought process he had- but nothing else came from him. In the connecting silence, Kung Jin was forced to let the remark sink in, to let it scatter around in his head, hoping that maybe the words would make landfall somewhere- hoping that maybe this whole situation would come together and make sense to someone.

"... Just say it."

The words were quiet, just barely above a whisper it felt.

A quiet urge that came without the push.

"I think I've said more than enough," Kung Jin started, quiet in his own right.

Because the truth in the matter was that he had said more than enough- more than he usually would. Both of them had. And he was willing to drop the subject here if needed, if only because he wasn't sure of where it would go from here. Maybe even a little afraid of where and how things would go from here. And even he had to admit that it was always the unknown that held him back.

And right now, with only speculation of how things would turn out, the risks were too great to sacrifice to the unknown.

"I don't really need to say any more, do I?" he finished.

"Perhaps not, but I-"

"Ah, here you are, Brother Fujin! I heard you were looking for me!"

If there was one more thing for the two of them to share it was the jump of surprise at the sudden interruption as Master Bo' Rai Cho made his way over to them. And judging by his tone, his body language, he was none the wiser about what they were just discussing.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything here," Master Bo' Rai Cho continued as he paused between the two of them, looking from one to the other before he set his attention on Fujin instead. "Although I should remind you that you are once more distracting my student."

If Fujin had any sort of panic or stumbling in his words, it certainly didn't show. "Yes well, haven't you heard about the latest ordeal with Outworld?" Fujin questioned. "The war between Osh-Tekk and Tarkatans is still turning out bloodshed and the Shokan population is nearly extinct as a result. I've been trying to discuss the implications of it with Raiden, but of course he won't hear any of it; he's too busy with other matters, and Outworld has never been at the top of priority list. I thought that you might be interested in discussing the matters, but of course you were nowhere to be found when I got here-"

"I was busy," the man insisted.

"I'm certain you were," Fujin replied, although his tone might've hinted otherwise. "Jin is studying Outworld law and politics, and good study desires consistent updates so it wasn't like I was distracting him with nonsense- if anything I was helping him with your next exam."

"Yes well study hours are reserved for the afternoon so you're welcome to come back and resume your conversation then," Master Bo' Rai Cho spoke, before he clapped the Wind God on the shoulder with a brisk laugh. "Now come, brother, I have time and I know how you are with your business- let's head back to my office for some wine and we'll talk."

It was such a surreal turn of events that Kung Jin still wasn't entirely sure of what had just happened.

One minute it was him and Fujin discussing... things.

And then next it was Fujin and Master Bo' Rai Cho leaving to discuss whatever business Fujin had originally came here for.

He didn't want to say that it felt as though he had just dodged a bullet, but it was an accurate statement nonetheless.

"And Jin," Master Bo' Rai Cho started, turning his unwanted attention back to him. "I know how you favor the bow, but remember not to skimp out on your Chakram this time. You passed the last exam with it, but it was sloppy."

Kung Jin frowned at the statement but admitted that there was a breath of relief to take at the same time. It gave him an opening to leave- and a reason to be busy for the rest of the day. Although he could've gone without the last remark. "Of course, Master Bo' Rai Cho- I'll go ahead and switch to the other field."

And with that, he left.

Leaving the unfinished conversation behind him.