A/N: Hello everyone!! So sorry about the quality of the fic. Kinda wrote it as a dare and by the end of the night I kinda realized it sounds like a child making two plushies arguing… feel free to sit back and enjoy it!
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Kai groggily stumbles through the living room, is it like a ninja to wake up so late? Definitely not. He's just grateful he wasn't woken up by the sound of a Mergequake. Besides, some slack should be cut, it was only "slightly" past the crack of dawn. Lloyd, Nya, and Zane were out, along with the new Ninja, so it's just Kai alone again, caring for the monastery.
He can hear a gentle creak, with footsteps following… weird, usually, there are never visitors. Unless Zane was back from the Crossroads, he always left early and came early as well, at least before the sun was fully up in the sky. Kai shrugs and heads outside, not particularly looking towards the door.
"Hey, you found what you were looking for…" He trails off, his eyes meeting with an old friend.
"Kai?" A gentle voice calls out.
Kai bolts to the entrance, where a black-haired boy is standing peacefully.
"I missed you! I missed you so much!" Kai hugs the other boy tightly, almost near tears.
The other guy runs his hands behind Kai's back "You know I'm alive, didn't Nya say?"
"Well yeah but.. you never visited."
"I uh.. had a different mission." Cole pats Kai's back. Kai rolls his eyes.
"And you didn't think to come see us?"
Fair enough, truth be told Cole got so caught up that he didn't want to go to the Monastery for a while, after coming to terms with knowing that Master Wu was gone he didn't want to come back, too many memories, but he just couldn't leave the ninja behind.
"I'm here now. "
"Right, right." Kai lets go. "Are you staying, Cole?"
"For a while, yeah." Cole steps back a bit.
Kai grabs Cole's hesitant hand, "Well c'mon, your room is the same. I kept the save files on your favorite game."
"Oh, you.. didn't have to." Cole trails behind, clearly a little confused, he didn't expect Kai to be so friendly, especially considering what happened before the day they separated. Maybe it's for the best, better not to recall.
Before he knew it, he was on a couch, a controller in his hand.
Kai jabs at him "One round, please? It's been so long."
See, since Cole was separated he hasn't touched a video game since, tortuous, I know. It got especially worse when he was then part of The Finders, sure, Geo could make anything, but a video game wasn't one of them, Cole was fine with it though, because on the plus side, he went from "Gaming Guru" to "Cooking Prince"
Cole chuckles, "Uh… it's been a while, I don't know if I have that same spark."
Kai didn't know this, of course, Cole and gaming are like a cat and milk, you could never separate them, maybe he scraped by. The Last of Lost Things had to have something Cole could use.
"I'm sure you do, you were the best one of all of us!"
"Alright.."
And with a click of a button, Cole's avatar popped up next to Kai, with the both of them holding hands and traversing a forest. Kai's avatar jumps, which confuses Cole, there's no…
Cole's avatar gets stuck in a bear trap, and with that the round ends.
Cole cringed and placed his controller back on Kai's lap playfully. "See! I told you! I got like.. ten times worse!"
"Yeah sure, you're just playing around, you know this level like the back of your ha—"
[GRUMBLE]
Was that an intruder? A Mergequake?? Oh shoot or worse.. Lloyd and Nya came back and they're gonna see two Ninja slacking off!
"Uh.. sorry." Kai laughs sheepishly, holding his stomach.
"Oh? Oh! Are you hungry? I can cook something if you want!"
"Oh no no, I'm good." In Kai's defense, the last time he ate Cole's cooking it was some salty amalgamation of ingredients, awful… so awful.
"No really, it's my treat." He lifts Kai by both of his hands and they go to the kitchen.
Making breakfast was a haze, and for a good reason too, Kai sat on a very familiar seat, and Cole was standing in the exact same…
Oh, the bread is ready.
Cole slides the bread off the pan and into an already full plate, almost packing it up to suit a ninja. He slides the plate over to Kai. "Done! Hope you like it!"
"Oh man! This looks so good! You can cook now?"
Cole takes off his oven mittens playing with one of his fingers, "Yeah uh.. Geo taught me the first part and I went from there…"
Kai speaks in between bites, "Whoever Geo is, taught you well, this is amazing!"
"Thanks!!" Cole puts the mittens away, thinking back to his family, even laughing a little. "When you have some kids to care for you kinda have to learn quick…"
Kai finishes and puts his plate in the sink, meeting Cole eye to eye, "Kids?"
Oh geez, should he say? How will he react? Already having what's practically a family at this age? When Cole's father was his age he wasn't stuck to a family, he was a dancer. None of the Ninja established anything either…
"Uh.. after the Merge I was taken in by a group and they took me in as their own. One thing left after another and we're like family now." Cole laughs nervously. Was that a lot? Kai looks.. well not like he did minutes before.
Kai's expression was left blank, like efforts were now futile, but about what? He chuckles a bit. "You've changed a lot, it's a nice look on you."
Aw, Cole didn't know whether he meant it in a good or bad way even with the additional compliment, so he tried to respond accordingly.
Cole shrugs. "It just came.. did you?" Realistically, Kai looks the same, acts the same, as if the Merge never happened. It's understandable either way, he found his sister and his little brother. But still.
"Not really.." Dead silent. To think that Cole moved on and found a bunch of people who love him. Kai could see it, of course, Cole always had that magnetic energy around him. Nonetheless, with everything that went on between him and Cole… so quickly?
Kai goes back to the kitchen counter. "Hey, remember the day before the Merge? We were right here and.."
Cole grips the counter, "Don't remind me, please."
"Why not? You've moved on, haven't you?" Hasn't he? He's happy with a bunch of new people, sure he still loves the Ninja but, he's alright.
"It's easy for you to say. I was the one who came out a crying mess, you doing that to me isn't something I can just… reminisce about and laugh. " Cole says, looking to the side.
Ouch, he didn't mean it like that. Kai thinks for a while, only saying, "I didn't mean to upset you, really. I'm sorry, I just.. I couldn't say yes. I…" he pauses "I really did mean what I said though, I think you're great I just couldn't…"
Huh? What? Couldn't what?
Cole chuckles, "I'm sure you know how I felt, it's just…" He leans on the counter, "You really knew how to shoot me down in the worst way, I'd be okay with a simple 'no' and a rational explanation but instead you say yes and spring all these explanations that definitely meant no, how could you—"
Kai interrupts, "You deserve to have someone who'll show you off, I can't do that. I want to but I'm just scared—"
Cole strikes back. "Why couldn't you though? What are you so afraid of? All these years, all those times you treated me past a brother, all the time you've retreated to ME for a shoulder. " Cole turns to Kai, his face looks a little flushed, is he crying? "Me of all people.. and you say no, again and again, and shower me with that same affection. Why?"
Kai almost reaches out to Cole, but his hand turns hesitant and drops. Seeing him in the same condition on that same way, what if a Merge were to happen tomorrow? So many thoughts, how to respond, how to respond…
When Cole first came out, it accidentally got broadcast on live TV. It was in Laughy's, and it could be remembered so vividly, you'd expect that the popularity of the ninja would die down, they're people after all. Nope. The amount of outrage that came from it, a simple word or two now became Cole's biggest weapon, sure the Ninja had his back but, it was scary and it just couldn't happen again.
"I just, I didn't want people to think I wasn't…" His voice breaks.
"Everyone knew I wasn't either Kai. It wouldn't be worse for you." Cole's voice cracks a bit; he's not taking it too well.
Kai scoffs, "How do you know it wouldn't be worse?"
His voice raises slightly, "It just wouldn't! What's the worst you could be called? Indecisive? Greedy?"
"Cole, I—"
"The amount of times I got called a…" Cole stops himself, sighing, wiping his face. "I'm not dismissing what you could go through but at least it won't be as bad, I would have your back, when have I not?"
Cole has a point, and Kai knew it, but for the longest, when the ninja were fame-struck, there was always one common theme with Kai, which was a little frustrating to say nonetheless. "Well you have so much more, you're the strongest, a natural leader, smart… most of the time. For a while I just became the good looks and I guess I just got caught up in wanting to appear… " What was the right word? Normal?
Cole pauses and walks up to the kitchen table Kai was at, "We ALL had something we were labeled with, but half of us didn't even care, including me! Why did you have to? Did it really affect you that much?"
Kai cringed like a child being scolded… well he kinda was being scolded anyway. " I… it was dumb of me, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hurt you for such a stupid reason."
"Answer this. After everything we've been through, after we crashed together and basically went through a living nightmare, why did you go to Skylor? You haven't seen her in years, you didn't even know she had a phone number? Was it me? Did I do something?"
Kai puts his hands up in defense, not for a physical blow, in fact, not for a blow at all. "No! Not at all! I just figured that I'd go for somebody who I guess I'd match with.."
Huh? What? "'Match?' You know she'd be nothing more than your wife! Imagine something like that, even she had the common sense to know that's not reasonable."
"I mean.. I like her so I was hoping it'd work."
"Is that so?" Cole asks, already knowing the answer.
Kai stays silent.
Truth be told, Kai and Skylor only had that chemistry with each other because well, Kai is Kai, a complete player. Sure they fight together well, work even better together but to Kai. Skylor couldn't compete with…
"I hurt you for such a stupid reason and played with your heart. No amount of me saying how great I think you are can't change that…" Kai holds Cole's hands, but he just pulls them away, after all, a tussle about being showered in affection but not wanting to commit shouldn't really have much affection inside it.
"I know, and I'm sorry, I just.. we didn't have any closure, at least after the Merge."
"Maybe we can move on like this didn't happen? I still want to be around you, yknow?" Kai gestures to the video game.
"I don't see why not, cmon then"
And they both head to the living room. "By the way," Kai chirps, "Do you and this Geo guy have something going on?"
Cole laughs nervously, wiping his tears, "erm, well.."
And from there it got worse.