ELEMENTAL SWITCH AU CHAPTER 11: Poisonous Love
Being bedridden sucked. It especially sucked when it was all because of something as insignificant and common as food poisoning. Though, he had to admit, days had never flown by quite as fast as when Kai was chatting to Lloyd. Something about the kid could light up the room when he was excited or make the entire world sink when he was upset. While the latter was becoming less frequent as Kai stayed on board, he secretly didn't mind when Lloyd burst into the infirmary and snuggled into him, terrified of the howling wind that was violently rocking the Bounty. It felt weird, but yet familiar. Kai finally managed to trace it back to the memories of young Nya cuddling him as a fierce storm roared outside. Kai had never been afraid of rain, like most young children were. He'd never known why, nor had he questioned it. But now, he simply smiled as he connected the dots.
Tonight was one of those nights. Lloyd tightened his grip around Kai's waist as a particularly loud gust of wind swept through the flying boat. Kai placed his arm around the small boy, and kept his eyes trained on the small window to his right, overlooking the sea below. He followed the raindrops pelting against the sheer surface, occasionally making one or two backtrack up the window before releasing it and letting it slide back down again. A hum of interest caught his attention, and he looked down to see Lloyd, gazing at the glass in wonder. Kai let out a small laugh, and decided to up his game. Reaching his hand out towards the window, he furrowed his eyebrows and concentrated on the droplets. Slowly, the water flowed into one, and began to take the shape of a hand, which waved merrily at Lloyd. Kai knew he had done his job when the kid let out a giggle of delight and waved back. Relaxing, Kai dropped his hand and the water-hand outside the window quickly lost it's shape and plummeted out of sight.
Finally, the night Kai had been waiting for presented itself to him. He had been up and back in action for a while now, and had helped the ninja in his Samurai X suit (which had taken a lot of convincing and team trust exercises) to find three of the four silver fang-blades. He rarely talked to the ninja at first, but he had had some decent conversations with Zane, who was good at quietly listening to his complaining and simply nodding in agreement, or smiling slightly when Kai poked fun at Sensei. In short, he'd gained their trust. So when the night came when it was Kai's turn to guard the ship and fang-blades, no-one thought anything of it. Nya and Zane were out at a local library, looking into the fang-blade's history, to see if there was anywhere hot enough to destroy them. The rest of the ninja were following a lead. Sensei was interrogating a captured serpentine, and Lloyd was at a comic book store reopening (he had insisted that it was important).
That left Kai all by himself on the destiny's bounty. He'd gradually gathered food from the kitchen cupboards, in an attempt to make sure that no-one noticed. He'd packed his backpack with clothes, a blanket a torch and some spare batteries. Gazing longingly at his pillow and the heaven-soft mattress, Kai sighed deeply, knowing h could only packed the necessities. It was weird how guilty he felt at leaving this place. It was not his home. He did not feel like he belonged here. Tossing his backpack onto his back, he adjusted his Samurai helmet and made for the door that lead to the deck. It was summer (the season Kai had intentionally waited for), yet the sky seemed dim and dreary. It was the early evening, so he figured he had a few more hours of sunlight. After double checking the armour for any signs of a tracker, he took a deep breath and stood on the ship's railing, ready to jump off.
"Find a lead?" A cool, calm voice made Kai jump a foot in the air. He steadied himself on the railing before quickly whipping his head around to see none other than Zane, looking innocently up at him from where he stood on the deck. He stumbled for words.
"Well, uh, no, I just um… I uh…"
Zane interrupted. "Were you going out for groceries? I have noticed that we've really been burning through all the fruit and pancakes recently." He said with a good natured chuckle. Suddenly those exact food items felt a lot heavier in
Kai's bag. He knew that Zane was not stupid. Zane knew fine rightly what was going on. He was just trying to gently coax Kai back inside. Still, Kai had nothing to say.
"Umm…"
Zane offered his hand up to Kai. "Well, if you truly can't decide what you're doing, maybe you should come inside and we'll talk about it."
Kai did not want to talk about it. But there was no denying. He was busted. He dropped his tense shoulders, begrudgingly took Zane's hand and stepped down.
He allowed Zane to direct him to the living room, where he removed his helmet, plopped down on the couch, and stared intently at his boots. Zane followed his lead and quietly lowered himself down beside him.
"Listen," Zane started, "I am truly sorry that you do not view the Bounty as your home like the rest of us do. But I don't think running would do you any good. You won't get enough to eat or drink. You'll be living in unhealthy and unsanitary locations. You'll be susceptible to attack from the serpentine." Zane shook his head. "It's simply too risky." Throughout the speech, Kai did his best to avoid eye contact, though he could tell Zane was trying to catch his eye. Zane sighed defeatedly. "Perhaps… perhaps if you really don't want to stay, we can alert the police of our situation and see if they can find a good home for you."
Panic raked through Kai's systems. He gazed, shocked, into Zane's luminescent blue eyes.
"You're just going to hand me to the government?" His breathing picked up, his balance became unsteady. He could vaguely hear Zane talking in an annoyingly calm voice, but he couldn't quite understand what he was saying. Then Zane gripped Kai's shoulders and shook him slightly, gently bringing Kai back to reality.
"Kai? Did you hear me?" Kai didn't respond. "I said that it's completely up to you," Zane repeated, "but you can't live on your own. You are simply too unstable. Do you understand?"
Kai nodded, though he really wasn't entirely sure. Part of him knew he was somewhat unstable and unfit to live on his own. The other part wanted to lash out at whoever accused him of such things. He was aware that Zane probably wanted an answer, but instead Kai stood up and murmured "I need to go and get changed." Zane nodded and stood up too.
"Yes, I need to get back to the library before Nya gets suspicious." After seeing Kai's troubled glance, Zane quickly added "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I've got a feeling that wouldn't help the whole 'trust' idea, now would it?" With a small smile, the two boys parted ways.
Kai spent the rest of the day in his room, dressed in his hoodie and tattered jeans, thinking over what Zane had said. He definitely was not going to the police, so in a way he'd already made up his mind to stay. The hours spent pacing up and down the length of his small bedroom were preparing himself for that reality. He'd gained a spare room to call his bedroom after he learned that the monastery had been burnt down. It was a corridor or two away from the ninja's joint bedroom, which he was pleased with, but only a room away from Wu's meditation room, where Wu spent most of his time. This, Kai was not so pleased with. Wu was patronising. He either treated Kai like a young child who needed constant reassurance, or like a rabid dog who you had to tread lightly around or else you'd get your ankles bitten off. Kai couldn't decide which was worse. He was always 'checking in' and or talking to him or resting his hand on Kai's arm or shoulder. It made Kai feel too warm, which (as Kai had convinced himself) meant he was angry. Though, he never made any attempts to stop him or push him away when Wu did these things. Of course, he would always tell him to 'get out' or 'get lost' when Wu entered, but the words always seemed somewhat half-hearted. He bet Wu knew that. Stupid Wu.
The clock had just struck 3pm when Kai heard Zane and Nya return from the library. Everyone except Lloyd and Wu were home already, which was obvious from the sounds of video games and shouting blasting from the living room. Kai had expected the new arrivals to join the others in a what sounded like a violent tournament, so he was caught off-guard when Nya burst though his door and stormed into the room. Her teeth were gritted, and her fists were clenched. She looked more than ready for a brawl. Kai stayed silent and waited for her to explain her anger. He had long since found out the hard way that if you tried to guess, your head may be bitten off.
"You tried to run away? Again?" She yelled, marching closer to him.
Kai blinked. "Zane…told you?"
"I don't need Zane to tell me! I knew from the moment he took off from the library what was going on! What were you thinking? Do you want to get yourself killed? You need to stay here, whether you want to or not! Why do you think I gave you food poisoning? I knew that you'd run the moment you got the chance. I thought that if you were forced to stay, you'd see reason and trust us! But not even sickness can get through your thick, self-centred skull!" Nya sniffed and angrily wiped away a tear. "Can you not see that we miss you?"
But Kai was no longer listening. He took a deep breath, and glared intensely into Nya's eyes. He spoke quietly and with dangerous calmness. "What did you do to me?"
Nya rolled her eyes. "Is that all you heard? Really?"
But Kai wouldn't have it. He stepped closer, squaring his shoulders and silently challenging her. He raised his voice only slightly. "What. Did you do. To. me."
His sibling seemed to accept his silent challenge, getting right up in his face. "I cooked your food. All I had to do was take your meat out of the oven a few minutes earlier than the others. I knew it wouldn't actually harm you. Stop being such a baby," she spat. Kai snarled down at her and was about to deliver a devastating insult when the door creaked. Kai turned his attention to the crack in the open doorway and noticed a shape standing on the other side.
In the split second Kai had looked away, Nya seized the opportunity to punch him hard in the stomach, letting out her built up anger in one, fire powered blow. Kai stumbled back a few steps, clutching his smouldering midsection. Then he charged forward with blinding speed, using his full body weight to tackle Nya to the floor where they rolled, scratching, kicking and biting. They were both vaguely aware of the figures trying to pry them apart, but they didn't dare stop. They were both absolutely set on winning this fight. Fire flared. Water gushed. By the time Jay, Cole and Zane had forced them about half a metre apart, Kai was smoking. His hoodie was blackened, his were shoes melted. Nya was drenched. Her gi had been ripped where she had been hit with the force of a power-hose. One of her shoulder pads had been blasted to the other side of the room, where it stuck out of the wall, its gold colour gleaming as if it had been put through an automatic car wash.
Still, each sibling struggled to free themselves from their captors so they could throw the other to the ground. All of a sudden a deafening yell erupted and ricocheted off the walls. "ENOUGH." Everything stopped. Heads whipped around to the door where an enraged sensei stood. His knuckles were white on his bo staff, his dangerous eyes flashing and flicking to each white faced student. He did not seem surprised that Nya was soaked or that the room was an inch deep in water. Instead he looked Kai up and down, his face softening ever so slightly from steel to rock. "I should have expected this," he muttered. "Nya, go to your room and put on a clean gi. I will deal with your punishment later. Kai," he paused, pondering his next words. "Come with me."