"You shouldnt be here wearing that"
Morro pointed his fork at the current red ninja on his living room.
Said Ninja just shrugged, dropping onto the dirty couch of the shitty apartment the eighteen ar old lived in.
"I'm serious you ass, do you know how much panic you cause everytime you come here wearing that bullcrap?"
Kai didn't respond and Morro sighed, deciding to ignore the teen and shifting his back to his still warm dinner.
His goose pet, Wojira, waddled all the way to Kai who ignored the bird.
"I would've gone home and changed but Nya and I had a fight"
"About?"
Kai only hummed in response.
"The usual then"
Morro grumbled but nonetheless got up from his place at the dinnertable and walked all the way to sit on the floor in front of Kai.
"At this point I'm not even surprised" He scoffed, food still in his mouth.
They stayed there in silence for a few minutes before Kai sighed heavily , taking off his mask and throwing it somewhere in the dirty floor, it wasn't that important anyways, his face and hair were covered in sweat, Morro gawked a bit.
Wojira honked at the offending mask now lying on the floor.
"I hate this"
Morro didn't speak, he knew Kai would start rambling anytime soon anyways so instead he kept eating pasta in silence.
Kai looked at him with a raised eyebrow a moment later.
"Aren't you gonna ask?"
The man kept eating for a few more moments before slurping the last serving on his plate.
He put said plate on the messy coffee table between them and watched Wojira jump on it to eat whatever leftovers where there.
Kai idly wondered if geese should be allowed to eat pasta, probably not but none of them were bothered enough by it to stop the demon bird either.
Finally he looked up just to find Morro leveling him with a stare.
"Do I even have to? Is either school, your soulmates or both"
The red ninja groaned, falling back into the couch and passing his hands down his face before looking up at the falling ceiling.
Yep. That was the problem. What a surprise.
"C'mon" He muttered annoyed. "That's not all I talk about"
"Oh you do, and change your damn clothes, you're a literal red flag"
He looked down, before throwing his hand up on exasperation.
"I didn't bring any spares, you know that right?"
Morro rolled his eyes, right, he was dealing with a moody teen, from his peripheral he saw Wojira leap down the table and go sit besides Kai.
"I'll give you some" He got closer and kicked the leg of the ninja lightly. "Now get up"
"Fine, fine" He murmured as Morro went to his bedroom to get him some more "normal" clothes. He shooed Wojira away only to receive a bite on the hand. "Piece of shit!" He growled.
"If you do anything to Wojira I'm kicking you out!" He called out from his bedroom.
"They bit me!"
"Well deserved! You're the one sulking!"
Morro got out of his bedroom, clothes in hand and handed them over, before going to his kitchen for some beers.
Kai went through the clothes before taking off his Gi, smiling at the sight of one particular t-shirt. He gave a faint smile.
Soon enough Morro came back with two boxes of beers, the fire elemental growled. "Hey! Would you mind?!" He was only on his underwear, apparently being in a bad mood made getting out of your Gi more difficult.
Morro ignored him, sitting in front of his coffee table and picking a beer before saluting Kai.
"Don't be such a prude, this wouldn't be the first time I see you in your undies, besides this is my apartment, I can do whatever the fuck I want"
Kai got red at the mention of that one time, he prays to whichever got is up there it wasn't with Morro of all people but still. What a shitty way to lose your virginity.
Morro noticed something on Kai's arms, a bunch of horizontal cuts adorning his wrist and part of the arm, he winced internally at those, sadly he wasn't too surprised either.
He decided to not bring it up... for now.
Finally finished changing he sat down again on the couch, before moving forward to take the beer he was being offered.
Wojira went around to sit besides him and this time Kai decided to pet them, the goose close their eyes.
"Alright then, spill"
Kai looked up, question lingering on his lips.
"The fight you idiot, isn't that why you're here?"
Oh, right.
Kai blinked, before smirking.
"Oh you know, I figured I would pass by, smoke some weed with you" He shrugged, playfully.
Morro knew well enough he just was avoiding the subject, which meant even if he didn't give him weed, edibles or anything he would just drink until he passed out.
But he wasn't a babysitter either so he turned around and took a bag out of his backpack, tossing it towards Kai as well as some blunt wraps, the teen muttered a "Thanks" before getting to work.
"Now talk"
Kai shrugged, not taking his eyes off his new project, taking a sip every now and then from his bottle.
"Kai" Morro growled, he wasn't in the mood for games.
Finishing one cigarette he handed it over to Morro who gladly took it.
"Well..." He started, avoiding eye contact and doing another cigarette. "The usual I think? Classes are shit, my soulmates keep writing to each other and Nya insist I should tlak to them"
Morro rolled the unlit cigarette on his hand.
"Maybe she's right and you should talk them, one battle less to fight"
"Yeah well, I can't read... nor write, you know, in case you forgot"
Morro scoffed. "Reading is an overrated skill anyways"
"The world seems to think otherwise"
Morro shrugged, getting up to search for a lighter.
"The world is shit anyways" He swallowed the rest of the phrase he was thinking as he racked his drewer.
Kai watched him in silent amusement.
"You do know I can lit it up for you right?"
Fuck. He forgot.
Morro snarled as he closed the drawer with force and walked towards the young teen.
"Piece of shit" He growled. "Could've told me sooner"
Kai cracked a smile. "I'm not at fault you forgot the literal fire elemental is crashing your apartment tonight"
Morro rolled his eyes "Ugh, whatever, just lit it up idiot"
Doing as he was told Kai lit up the cigarette and Morro moved towards the window again, opening it so the smoke could get out, he leaned on the wall besides it and munched on what he was about to say.
"You don't have to finish school nor you have to be a ninja, you know that, right?"
Letting out some smoke he got up and walked towards the open window, letting the cool air of the night mess his already disarrayed hair.
"Yeah? And then what? Who is gonna take me in? Most jobs in the city require either High School diploma or basic skills such as reading" He brought the weed cigarette back to his mouth, ignoring the deep green eyes that kept staring at him as if they could read his mind.
"Besides" His voice softened. "I can't leave Nya either"
Oh there we go again. Fuck.
"Please, you know she doesn't need you" He saw Kai wither at those words, he knew they stung, but he kept on going. "Didn't you said she found some of her soulmates the other day? I'm sure she would be just fine, besides, your own soulmates don't even know you exist, would they really miss you?"
It seemed as if Kai's thoughts had just been voiced and the teen sniffed, cleaning the corner of his eyes as he took on another sip, walking to his previous spot, finishing the beer and diving in right for a second one.
He then gave an humorless laugh, eyes shinning with unshed tears, looking back at Morro. "You know, you're horrible at moral support"
Morro gave him the most deadpaned glare he could muster.
"I'm a drug dealer, what kind of moral support were you expecting from me?"
He gave another empty laught before drinking again. "That's fair, my fault for expecting something else" He muttered.
They spent the next few minutes on silence, each indulging on their bad habits and their own head. At least until Kai opened his mouth again.
"Do you think it would be better if I just leave?"
'Leave' says Kai, Morro knows exactly what he's referring to.
"Oh yeah? And what good would that bring? Didn't you just said your sister needs you? Do you really want her to experience grief over a stupid decision you made while drunk and high?"
Kai brought the burning cigarette to his mouth and didn't say anything, idly tracing the scars on his arm.
"You do know no matter how many scars you've got there, the words will keep reappering, right?"
"Then I guess I'll just have to keep on erasing them"
Morro banged his head against the wall, tired. He passed a hand through his face.
"Why everytime you come here you've to bring me your suicidal bullshit?"
Kai shrugged, a half assed smile adorning his face.
"Sorry dude, it comes with the package"
"I want a refund"
"Too late"
Morro started to walk around the messy living room aimlessly, kicking the red Gi that was on his path, noticing something shiny under the dim yellow lights of his apartment. He scowled.
"You really enjoy fucking up everything in your life don't you?"
Kai shrugged,a sad smile adornig his face. "You can't be the King of bad decisions if you never make any"
"Yeah, whatever you say "King"" He emphasized the last word mockingly, it made Kai laugh.
After a few moments Kai took his phone, ignoring all the messages on his screen and opened spotify. "Do you mind if I put on some music?"
"Do whatever"
"What about your neighbours?"
"The fuckers had their music on full blast from early night until ten am, if they don't like it they can go fuck themselves"
"Cool"
Morro moved to connect the speakers just as Kai chosed one of his list, the song started to play and Morro decided he wasn't letting Kai chose the music ever again.
"What is this bullshit?"
With the bottle on his hands Kai shot a questioning glare to the other man. "What's wrong?"
"Your music, that's what's wrong"
"The fuck dude, Icon for Hire is an excellent band"
"My god and I'm the emo one, you're edgy as fuck"
"I'm fifteen"
"Exactly my point"
Kai rolled his eyes. "They're therapeutic to listen to"
"..."
"Does that even makes sense?"
"No"
Kai scoffed tossing the empy bottle somewhere, hearing it roll around before turning around to get another beer, his third or fourth, he can't really remember. He was starting to feel tipsy but he really didn't care.
Morro clicked his tongue, going onto the kitchen to find a plastic bag, an idea on his mind.
"With music so depressing no wonder you're always trying to kill yourself, the amount of kamikazes you've almost sucessfully pull out is insane, really, no joy in your life at all."
"Nope, not at all" And he sat down to gulp another beer. Wojira went ahead to lay down on Kai's legs, the ninja without doubt started petting them while he continued to drink.
Morro disappeared onto another room and started to shove a bunch of stuff onto the plastic bag, he isn't sure how long he was there but he wouldn't take any risks, by the time he came back out a considerable amount of songs has played and Kai seemed half dead on the floor, Wojira had moved to who-knows-where.
There were a higher amount of empty bottles around too.
Goddamnit. This kid.
"If you're gonna fall asleep at least have the fucking decency to crash on the damn couch,"
Kai, who looked like a zombie, wordlessly obeyed, getting up (crawling actually) towards the couch and somehow managing to lay down there... kind of.
The older of the pair walked closer and hoisted up his legs, effectively making him lay down in a more comfortable position.
"Uh?" Slurred Kai, how much had he drink to be this smashed already? He noticed the bag on Morro's hand and blinked. "Watcha' the'e?"
Morro held up the plastic bag.
"Pills, hard drugs, needles and anything sharp" Good thing Kai wasn't coherent enough to figure out that "anything sharp" also meant the pocket knife he always carried with him.
The already drunk teen whined a "Why" before letting his head fall onto the couch. Wojira made themselves comfortable on the drunk teens chest, ready for a nap.
"You know exactly why"
He didn't care. He really didn't.
Sighing Morro went to his bathroom before grabbing a couple of towels and tossing them on the others direction, just in case someone decided to throw up in the middle of the night.
He didn't check if he caught them or not, probably not.
Then he went to his bedroom, hiding the plastic bag on his closest drawer, making sure to lock the doors before lying in bed.
Morro knew it was past midnight and there was no way in hell Kai was gonna be up in five hours to attend school, but that wasn't his problem. If he wanted so bad to repeat another year then that's on him.
Checking the locked drawer for a second time, the gun below his pillow and the key around his neck the wind elemental took a sharphie that was on close by and drew a few birds on his arm, right in the place where he knew the scars where.
Once done he tossed the item to the other side of the room and laid down, idly tracing them as he fell asleep.
They would probably make Kai feel worse once he woke and saw them but he didn't care, it was a reminder after all.
Yeah the kid might be in the dumpsters and Morro couldn't care less... But he didn't want him dead either.