"Cole." Kai opened the door of the empty cabin where Cole was now staying aggressively, letting it hit the side of the wall.

"Kai, it's…" Cole shook his head before he said the time out loud.

He knew it was late, Kai knew it was late, everyone was supposed to be asleep by now even if he was given the exception due to not needing it any more, it was still his alone time.

"I know, I know," Kai insisted, "I just…I need your help with something, in the kitchen. Now."

"I swear, if you blew something up…" Cole didn't finish his threat as he followed behind Kai's fast footsteps to the kitchen, only to stop dead in his tracks when he saw Lloyd sitting at the kitchen island in a dining chair, his head resting on his folded arms.

He pulled his eyes away from Lloyd to look back at Kai, who was searching through the medicine cabinet at a breakneck speed, "what did you do?"

"I didn't do anything," Kai insisted as he put the thermometer and the box of disposable covers on the counter before turning away from Cole again, "he woke me up, said his ears were hurting and when I got out of bed to see if I could find the Tylenol, turns out he has a fever so bad that I can feel the heat radiating off of him."

"You sure that's not just a fire powers thing?" Cole asked, desperately wanting to take a step closer to Lloyd, to see if his temperature was as intense as Kai said but he refrained. It had only been a few weeks since they defeated Morro, the last thing he wanted was to make Lloyd more jumpy.

"There it is!" Kai shouted while pulling the Tylenol out of the spice cabinet, resulting in a soft groan from the island.

Cole had to keep fighting the urge to reach over and rest his ghostly hand on Lloyd's back.

Kai triumphantly deposited his findings on the counter and the tylenol bottle, the glass of water and the thermometer all made sense, but the faded prescription bottle made Cole reach forward and examine it, trying to find a label only to be met with defeat.

"Kai, what the hell is this?" Cole asked, shaking the orange bottle with the pills inside, "you can't just give Lloyd random medication."

"I know that," Kai huffed as he fitted the probe cover over the thermometer, "those are Lloyd's, from his last ear infection."

"First off, how the actual fuck did you read that with how dyslexic you are," Cole questioned with another squint at the faded label, "and secondly, he hasn't had an ear infection in like, a year at least."

"Tryin' to poison me." Lloyd muttered as he lifted his head off of his arms with a smirk on his pale face, which Cole had to stifle a laugh at Kai's scowl.

"You woke me up. I was sleeping peacefully and everything," Kai flicked the thermometer on, "sit up so you don't choke on this."

Lloyd did as he was told, letting Kai slip the thermometer between his lips which allowed Cole to finally get a good look at what they were working with.

Lloyd's eyes were glassy and also drooping shut with what Cole could clearly see was exhaustion, his cheeks were bright pink with fever but the rest of his face was pale in the dim light of the kitchen.

"Kai, a word," Cole demanded, pulling Kai up from the dining room chair he had pulled in for himself and walking over to the other side of the room, "what did you need me for? You know how to do this stuff by yourself."

"Clearly not, I nearly gave Lloyd old antibiotics," Kai offered a quick smile but it faded from his face as quickly as it came, "look, I know yours and Lloyd's friendship is a bit strained right now, but I thought-"

"That you should confront his fear while he has a fever and is exhausted out of his mind?"

"Okay, okay, I'll admit, bad idea," Kai rubbed a hand over his face, "I didn't think that through, but everyone else is asleep or in Zane's case, powered off for the night. You were already awake and I needed someone to…to make sure I didn't screw up and, if it would mean Lloyd wasn't scared of your, um, new form-"

"Yeah, I get it," Cole sighed, "but First Master, you need all of your sleep because you are worse than Jay right now," he ignored Kai's angry "hey!" and walked back over to the island as Lloyd pulled the beeping thermometer out of his mouth.

"How high is it?"

"I'm not boiling my brains out of my ears." Lloyd's voice was hoarse as he turned the digital thermometer to Cole and Kai, the display reading an even one hundred.

"Yep, that's probably an ear infection," Cole agreed, "we'll get you to a doctor tomorrow, okay?" Lloyd nodded and rested his head on his folded arms again.

"Hey, you need to take this," Kai reached forward to poke Lloyd's elbow to which he held out a hand, "First Master, sit up for more then two minutes."

"So bossy," Lloyd muttered as he sat up before taking the glass and pills from Kai, "I'm sick, you know."

"Who woke who up?"

"Touché." He swallowed the pills and set the empty glass on the island.

Kai stood up and took to the sink to wash quickly, returning with a damp cloth which he handed to Lloyd. "Hold that against the back of your ear."

Lloyd complied, his shoulders relaxing almost instantly as he rested his free elbow on the island.

"Still got it," Kai gloated, Cole responded by rolling his eyes, before the fire ninja turned back to Lloyd "Hey, greenie. Cole said I'm really stupid without all of my sleep."

"He's not wrong."

"Hellspawn."

"Hothead."

"Not the point," Kai pinched the bridge of his nose, trying his best to avoid an insult war at…now that Cole thought about it, he had no idea what time it was, "I'm gonna go to bed, and Cole's gonna stay with you till your Tylenol kicks in. Is that okay?"

Cole swallowed when he saw Lloyd look up at him with a mix of feverish and worry in his green eyes before looking back down at the island.

"Kai, I'm not sure if-" he was cut off by Kai's glance, his very insistent glance, so Cole mustered up the courage to look Lloyd in the eyes, "up to you, kid."

"That's fine," Lloyd agreed after a beat of silence before looking right at Kai, a smile on his face, "you need all the sleep you can get."

"You're a real menace to society, you know that?" Kai insisted before walking over to wrap his arm around Lloyd's shoulder, whisper something in his ear and pat him on the back before exiting the room.

The only sound to be heard after that was the soft buzzing of the fridge.

Cole couldn't pry his eyes away from Lloyd, who was just holding the warm cloth to his ear to try and ease the pain but also Lloyd, who was terrified of him; he had been too slow, and because of it, he was going to lose his little brother.

"I can't do this."

"Do what?" Lloyd questioned, looking up at him.

"I can't…I can't pretend that this is normal, that everything is fine, that I'm not-"

"A ghost?" Lloyd supplied and that was it, Cole couldn't hide it anymore, Cole couldn't lie to everyone anymore and say that everything was fine.

Because his friends were alive and he was stuck longing for what once had been.

"You're allowed to not want me around," Cole insisted, waiting for the tears that wouldn't come because he couldn't cry, he couldn't produce his new death sentence, "after what you went through, I'm not gonna be mad-"

"I don't want to," Lloyd cut him off, stunning him into silence, "I don't want to be scared of you. You didn't hurt me, you had nothing to do with…all of this."

Cole sighed. He knew Lloyd was right; if anyone else was awake, they would also know that Lloyd was right and yet…Cole still couldn't bring himself to get close to him, to pull him into the tight hug that he so desperately needed.

If he moved too quickly and made Lloyd flinch or worse, scream, he would never be able to forgive himself.

"Why aren't you scared of me?" Cole finally asked, watching as Lloyd frowned the exact same way his father used to, like he was a carbon copy of their former sensei.

"Because you're not him."

Cole couldn't help but let out a yelp of surprise as Lloyd abandoned the wet cloth to stand up and wrap his arms tightly around Cole.

He immediately did the same to Lloyd, feeling him nestle his head against his shoulder like he always did.

'At least some things can stay normal.'