It might be surprising to hear but Skylor Chen likes cuddles.

Maybe is because she grew up in a cult where most she got from her father was a praise that wasn't really a praise and a headpat and that was it.

Most of the time there wasn't even physical contact between her and her father, no hugs, no goodnight kisses, hell, a lot of times when being addressed he wouldn't even look at her.

So it wasnt a surprise when once she found herself free from he cult for the first time in her life she was touch-starved.

Which wouldn't be too much of a trouble if she actually had someone to help fill the necessity.

Which she didn't, sure she hang out every now and then with the other elementals but most of them were that touchy you know?

She herself wasn't that touchy so in the end she settled with hugs from her friends, mostly Chamille, Tox and Ash.

And it was okay.

Or so she thought.

Enter Kai.

Kai is a casanova, a playboy, a pretty boy.

He has the looks and behaviour of one, he flirts, he's good at it, he plays along and he definitely enjoys hook ups

Everyone knows that.

Hell, it would be a surprise he wouldn't do any of these things considering how he looks and carries himself.

He also seems to enjoy the attention of others.

But the truth is, Kai is not really interested, sure he finds entertaining to flirt and be flirted with back, and the hook ups are fun and feel good and all that, but he's not really interested on enamoring someone.

He's also a deeply insecure guy that thinks if he's not useful then there's no reason to have him around.

And he's touch-starved.

None of these things are new to the Ninja, his closest people and his family.

Hell apparently in the job application to be a Ninja one of the must mark positive on "having low self esteem and lot of deep insecurities" because Kai can't think of anyone inside the team that doesn't struggle with any of this.

Even Pixal.

Go Figure.

And Skylor being a "Honorary Ninja" fits that bill too.

But she seems way more secure than Kai is so it's not surprise he would eventually orbit towards her.

If by eventually one meant "First meeting"

But here's the thing, yeah they're attracted to each other, like magnets, they pull each other in.

Except, their relationship just doesn't seem to work.

And they try, gosh do the try over and over again.

The worst thing is probably that they care about each other, they just don't know where they stand, or why.

"I don't think we can keep doing this"

Kai had said one night they've gone out.

It's been a good night, they went to eat something, saw some movies (they sneaked into the theater) and finally Kai took her to the top of the building to see the bright neon light of the night city.

Skylor hummed, kicking her legs onto the hair, leaning just that bit more until she could feel the hair rushing up.

Kai had hoped onto a kind of railing, the daredevil.

He was balancing on his toes, honestly it looked as if he was imitating spiderman more than anything else but Skylor had come to learn that Kai just... Did weird poses, because they felt comfortable.

She swore he was just an oversized cat.

Skylor looked down onto the city, thinking, he didn't seem to want to say anything else.

She could feel what he was thinking, kind of, she could agree that whatever they had going on was a mess, but it wasn't a bad mess, not in her opinion.

This was probably one of her most important relationships and Kai was one of his most dearest people alongsuide Lloyd and Nya.

So why? Why was this so difficult?

They clearly cared for each other in such a deep level she couldn't just call this a friendship but then again everytime she thought about Kai as her romantic partner something just felt... Off.

But that wasn't a valid reason to just... End things, or stop doing them, not in Skylor's book.

So, what now?

Skylor didn't have an answer, but-

"How about we try again?"

"Sky-"

"No, hear me out"

He shut up, looking at her with sad, conflicted and resigned eyes.

"How about we try again, without labels?"

He clocked his head to the side, confused.

"What do you mean?"

She shrugged a bit.

"We just... Do our stuff I guess, no boyfriend/girlfriend things just... Us existing?

" So friends? "

She got her hands up, playing with her hair and avoiding her gaze.

" If you wanna call it that" She admitted she wasnt that happy with the wording but what else could she do? "I think it just runs deeper than that but without overlapping with the romantic stuff"

Kai hummed and then shrugged too.

"Hell why not, let's try again then" He offered his hand to Skylor who happily took it and shook it.

Kai grumbled as he decided to mop on the backseat of Skylor's very cheap and old car.

"This is getting annoying"

Skylor flops right on the driver's seat and hits her head against the wheel.

"Tell me about it" She whines.

Turns out showing any kind of physical affection out in public means they're dating.

Sad because Kai actually likes holding hands.

After a few moments Skylor straightened up and started the car, Kai didn't even bothered on sitting properly.

"Next time we are having a Marathon in my department while eating junk food"

"Oh thanks First Master" Muttered Kai.

"We are not going to karaoke"

"Why not?!"

"Because, one I can't sing and two I seriously seriously doubt you can sing"

"Woah woah okay, first of all you go to Karaoke yo have fun though I don't know if you know what's that like"

"Excuse me?!"

"And second, I've the most beautiful singing voice ever, just ask Jay"

"... You are lying"

"I'm not! Just ask Jay?"

"... Jay? Your Jay"

"Of course! You should know during our usual Karaoke night he and I..."

"Pfft"

"... Please don't tell Nya, actually no, don't tell anyone but especially not Nya"

"I don't know"

"Sky"

"..."

"Skylor please"

"..."

"Skylor please i'm begging you"

"No wonder they kick you out during summer"

"Shut up" Grumbled the red ninja from his position above Skylor, cuddling with her.

What happens when you put two touch-starved people that are comfortable with each other together?

Lots of physical affection.

Skylor found herself pretty comfortable scrolling aimlessly through her phone with a red ninja above her.

Said Ninja was doing the same.

They just liked the company of each other okay? And while most of the ninja weren't happy with having the fire elemental anywhere close during summer Skylor actually didn't mind it.

"For you information" Started Kai as he hid his face on Skylor neck, seemingly getting ready for a nap. "Jay usually loves cuddling with me"

She scoffed, smiling. "Really? With how much you two bicker I wouldn't expect it from you"

He turned his head around, enough to glare at her.

"Excuse me? Cuddling is like, the best thing ever, everyone likes to cuddle with me, even Jay"

"Ah, so that explains the messages I got from Nya the other day about her brother stealing her boyfriend"

"Hey!" He shot up defensively "He's the one that usually comes to me, I just deliver"

"Yeah? And why did they kick you out today?" She smirked.

He deflated, going back to his previous position of scrolling to his phone.

"Leave me alone" He grumbled, she just laughed.

"This is like, your worst idea ever"

"You don't know that"

"You're right, Pixal has definitely mentioned worse things"

Kai glared at her, the sand dune below him making him sink with each step.

"Why the hell didi you two even start talking" He muttered under his breath.

Skylor smirked leaning against the motorbike and watches as he climbs up on a dune, all the way to the top.

There's small bushes all around, something that someone who hasn't ever seen a dessert would find weird.

Skylor is worried about them if she's being honest.

Not because they're dangerous or something, but because Kai of all people is surrounded by them.

She watches until he has reached the top, trips and barely avoids rolling down the dune.

He's such an idiot and she can't help but scoff in amusement.

It quickly evolves onto laughter as he gets his arms up and screams "I'M ON TOP OF THE WORLD".

She doubles over as he shots some fire up, releasing big fireballs onto the sky that break and fall into smaller embers before dying above the sand.

She has to admit it looks like fun but that's quickly forgotten when he trips on her way down and actually ends up rolling down the dune landing at her feet.

He scowls as she just laughs harder and rolls his eyes, offering her his hand.

She takes it happily, feeling the borrowed fire rush down her veins warming her up before she starts to climb as he dusts himself off.

Here's the thing, turns out climbing up a sand dune is more difficult than it appears.

You sink at every step and if you put your foot down wrong you're gonna slip.

Skylor definitely didn't fall a few times while climbing up and Kai definitely didn't laugh.

Once she reahhed the top she stopped for a moment to admire the sunrise.

It was just starting, the sky barely being lit up by the sun.

It was beautiful.

She lost herself on it for a bit, at least until Kai screamed.

"Sky! You okay up there?!"

"Yep!"

She screamed back before breathing in and reading herself.

Then as the sun came up and the lights shone behind her she released the biggest scream she has ever let out as fire shouts up from her fingers falling onto the warm sand colored orange by the sunrise.

If they had to put out some fires after that well , that's for them to know.

The first time Kai has breakdown it comes from nowhere or so he thinks.

It's not really his first breakdown either.

He wasn't even planning on visiting Skylor, he was actually on patrol duty that night.

It had been a few silent weeks so they've tone down the patrols to two Ninja per night, this time he got to paired with Nya, him going towards the slumps, Nya towards the more rich section.

It really comes out of nowhere, at least in his opinion.

Normally the usual chill air of the night would make wonders to his mood, usually eve taking off his mask to enjoy the feeling of the air on his skin and hair as he ran around.

But this time he didn't even took his mask of.

The bottling up of emotions had been started to overwhelm him and even if he tried to do his usual route he just couldn't.

He hasn't even noticed he made his way his way to the restaurant until someome was ushering him inside.

Eventually he found himself sitting on a booth, inside an empty restaurant with a cup of hot tea in his hands and a blanket on his shoulders mask now forgotten in the table in front of him.

Oh and Skylor was sitting across his seat.

He idly sipped more of his tea as Skylor kept looking at her phone.

"Thank you" He murmured after a while, not looking up.

Skylor blinked, glancing at him briefly before going back to her phone.

"No problem"

They didn't talk about it that night, instead he finished his drink and was off again with a quiche "goodbye hug from Skylor"

If he looked more tired than usual when he arrived back at the monastery he didn't say anything.

They would end up talking about the whole thing the nigh after, through phone, because Kai couldn't sleep.

He ended up falling asleep with the call on.

"What the hell is that thing?" Skylor pointed with her hand at the bowl in Kai's hands.

Kai looked up from his... food, if that could be called food.

"Uh... something Lloyd showed me, it doesn't taste that bad you know" He picked some more noodles covered in spice and put it on his mouth, slurping happily.

"You're talking about something Lloyd recommended" Skylor made a face and brought her bowl closer to her, as if fearing it would get contaminated by Kai's.

Kai got an offended look on his face.

"Hey, he's better cook than Cole"

"Just because he can cook better doesn't mean he has a better taste"

"Rude" Kai muttered before looking at her bowl and getting his pair of chopsticks close to her food, trying to steal some. "Steal" because he did this every time they went out together.

"You're in no way getting your contamined chopsticks even close to my food" She glared, batting said chopsticks away.

"Then what? Am I supposed to eat with my hand?"

She huffed, rolling her eyes before picking food with her own pair and holding it up.

"Open up fireboy"

He obeyed.

He had to admit Skylor was right, food was so much better that way.

Skylor didn't exactly have breakdowns, apparently she had found a better way to cope with her thoughts.

She had a diary, it was a mess but it helped her.

She would write down any thing that bothered her, or any thought she figured needed a deeper insight later on.

But see, the diary could only help so much.

Hence why one time Kai walked onto the restaurant after closing hours, looking around

"Sky?"

She hummed, hugging her knees closer to her body.

"What's wrong"

"I don't know" She muttered, not looking up instead choosing to scratch the already falling purple polish nail off her fingers. "I just feel as if I'm going crazy"

"Ah"

Kai didn't said anything more deciding to make space besides her and just offer his company until she seemed to get better.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" He asked as he was leaving, a couple of hours later.

"Uhm, how about we do that over some junk food and movies?"

"If that works for you"

She smirked playfully. "Is a date then" And offered her hand to shake, which he did but not after rolling his eyes so far back it gave him a slight headache.

Next time he received a cryptid message he made sure to pick Skylor's favourite chips brand on his way there.

"What do you mean you've never drifted a car?"

"Normal people don't go around drifting cars Kai"

"Ah! As if that's ever stopped me"

"Well, as I said, normal people don't do that"

"..."

"What"

"Gimme your keys"

She just sighed heavily and handed him her car keys.

He might've ended up in debt with Pixal and Skylor after that.

"Did you read?"

"Sky, I can't read"

"Right right"

She leaned more onto him from her spot on the couch and passed her phone over to him, he clicked his tongue, he didn't need to read to know what was on the screen.

"Ugh, not again" He moaned, hitting his head againts the couch.

She huffed a laugh, leaning in a bit more, deciding he was just comfortable to lean on.

"Is this common occurrence?"

"Kinda" He sighed, tiredly rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Your life is such a comedy"

"Tell me about it"

They spent a few more minutes in silence, just shifting a bit until they got into more of a cuddle position.

"So, you didn't answer my question"

"Agh" He groaned "Yeah is quite common, sorry about that" He grimaced.

She hummed.

"I'm not gonna lie and say it's not uncomfortable to be label as romantic partners, but I guess it was to be expected"

"I guess so" He idly played with her ponytail.

"... We're definitely not going out for the new weeks are we"

"Oh you bet we are not, let those rumours die in ashes, as they should"

She laughed a bit under her breath. "Fine by me"