Back at the monastery the ninja placed bets on how long it would be until Lloyd came home. Kai said a week. Cole said two. Jay put down 1 month, and Zane surprised everyone when he said 1 year.
"No way would Lloyd wash windows for a whole year!?" Says Kai with thinly veiled anger.
"We will see." Says Zane calmly.
Kai stormed out after that. Zane wrote down everyone's guess on a piece of paper and pinned it to the wall of the game room. Jay wasn't sure if it really needed to be written down, but didn't feel like arguing with Zane.
From then on, Kai had been taking his physical training more seriously. He was often seen in the courtyard, doing laps of the training course, or practising kata, or doing other strength building like weights, or pushups. Zane and Cole would join him occasionally, but they couldn't match his newfound enthusiasm.
One day Jay and Cole were playing a video game listening to the sound of Kai striking a practice dummy with his training sword over and over.
"Should we place bets on how long this is going to go on?" Asks Cole with mild concern.
Jay shrugs, "I think the existing bets are sufficient for both."
Cole sighs, "So it is because Lloyd's gone? To compensate for lower numbers?"
"Either that or he thinks he's the leader now and doesn't want to let us down."
"Hmm. Could be."
The two continue to beat away the onslaught of enemies on the screen.
"So who is the leader?" asks Cole.
Jay shrugs. "Not Kai."
Cole chuckles slightly, "yeah, obviously." He agrees before saying, "Probably Zane, right?"
Jay mulls it over, he didn't want to be the leader right now. "Yeah, probably." He agrees. "Do you think he knows?"
"I doubt it. Should we tell him?" Asks Cole.
"No way." Says Jay, "Then we'd have to tell Kai."
"Oh, right." Says Cole. "Best not to."
They go back to focusing on the game.
One week after the bets, Kai is even more grumpy than usual. Zane crosses out Kai's bet. Cole is second guessing his own bet, so crosses out weeks and writes months. This sends him and Kai into a big argument. Jay hears part of it from his room.
"Am I the only one who hasn't given up on him?"
"It wasn't my idea to write it down!"
"He needs an intervention!"
"He needs space!"
"How would you know? You didn't even see him!"
"I could ask you the same thing!"
Jay pulls the cover over his head to try and muffle the sound.
The next day Kai comes to find Jay.
"Training, now." He instructs Jay before walking off.
Jay scoffs and goes back to reading his comic.
Kai comes back, physically picks up Jay and starts carrying him outside.
"Hey! Put me down!" Grumbles Jay, squirming in Kai's muscular grip.
When in the courtyard and back on his own two feet, Jay looks at Kai nervously, trying to figure out his mood.
Kai glares at him for a moment before saying, "Over the last week, I haven't seen you exercise at all. How come? Is it the breathing thing?"
Jay blushes with embarrassment, scratching the back of his head. "Well, umm.." it was a mix of not wanting to trigger an asthma attack, along with his general lack of motivation to get up off the couch to do anything, and his slight fear of Kai and his mood in this current obsession.. Kai crosses his arms waiting for an answer. "Yeah, the breathing thing.." says Jay, deciding it is the least embarrassing of the three options.
Kai nods. "Ok, I'm going to work with you to find an exercise routine that doesn't trigger your asthma." He says confidently.
Shit. That means it was going to be more than just one session. And as much as Jay didn't want to exercise, he couldn't think of a decent reason not to. He was still a ninja, and he knew his physical condition was starting to slip. He lets out a big sigh. "Fine. Where do we start?"
"Small. We start small. I've been doing some reading about it," Kai, reading? "and gentle warm ups can help prevent some issues. Also, always wear your hood, it will help protect your airway from pollen and cold air." Kai chucks a blue hood towards Jay before putting on his own red hood. Possibly so that Jay's hood doesn't stand out.
Jay blinks a couple times in stunned silence before donning his own hood. This wasn't what he was expecting from the grumpy, impatient hot head. They start off with some gentle kata as a warm up, then do some staged sparring, working through specific moves on each other. Finally some running. After only a couple laps of the courtyard Jay's chest starts to feel tight, so he stops. Kai notices, and doubles back. "Breathing?"
"Yeah.."
"Bad?"
"Not yet.."
"Ok, let's see if cooling down helps."
Kai then walks Jay through some yoga poses with focus on breathing, after a few minutes of this Jay's heart stops racing and he feels back in control of his breathing. I didn't use my inhaler.. he thinks with mild awe.
"Ok, we're done for today." Says Kai. "We'll go again tomorrow, and then you get a rest day. Two on, one off."
"Um, thanks." Says Jay, not exactly sure how to phrase: my body has felt like a prison lately, and you just gave me back a shred of control.
"You can thank me by keeping it up!" Says Kai gruffly as he heads off to the shower.
They meet again the next day, doing a slightly different routine. The warm up is the same, then weights and pushups, followed by the obstacle course for the aerobic portion. Kai gives instructions for each step, all Jay has to do is follow. While it felt a little insulting to let Kai boss him around, one of the reasons it had been so hard to get off the couch to exercise on his own was the decision fatigue that came with working out. Which exercise to do? How many reps? Over and over and over. Right now he didn't need a workout buddy, he needed a personal trainer, someone else to make all the decisions, so he let Kai boss him around. And was a little relieved he didn't need to give any planning input to the training.
After the second workout sesh Jay goes to the game room to chill, finding Cole using the TV, Cole pauses the movie when Jay enters. "Is Kai torturing you with exercise?" He asks.
Jay stretches before sitting down, "Nah, he's actually being pretty helpful."
"Really?" Says Cole sceptically, "It kinda sounded like he has you in boot camp. You don't need to let him push you around just cause he's upset about Lloyd."
Jay shrugs. "Maybe I want to be in boot camp. Like I said, he's helping."
"Well ok then." Cole says, looking mildly concerned, a frown resting on his face.
Jay looks at Cole, something else seems to be bothering him. "Thanks for checking, if Kai does start torturing me, I'll be sure to let you know." There was no reaction from Cole, he looked lost in thought, brow still furrowed as he stared at the patch on the wall where the bets were previously pinned.
"Um, are you ok?"
"What, me?" Says Cole with surprise, coming out of his trance and looking at Jay. "Yeah, I'm fine, it's just.. am I wrong? Should we be working harder to bring Lloyd home? Like.. you saw him. What do you think?"
Jay mulls it over. "You're not wrong. If we are too direct about asking him to come back, we'll end up pushing him further away. Being here isn't good for him right now. Give him space. And when we check in on him, we need to tread lightly, and be supportive."
Cole nods, thinking through Jay's response. Lines of worry still stretch his face.
Jay sighs. "Remember, you're not the leader." He states.
"What? What is that supposed to mean?" Asks Cole defensively.
"It means, don't stress so much about how everyone else is doing. You can't fix everyone on your own, for the team to work, we all need to support it. Just make sure you are looking after yourself too."
Cole lets out a sigh, "When did you get so wise?"
"I drank some of Wu's tea earlier?" says Jay with a grin.
They both chuckle before Cole puts the movie back on.