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“Ugh Zane come on! You're a robot, how long can it possibly take you to get ready?” Kai’s loud voice was filled with teasing while he tried to get his boyfriend to hurry up in the other room. “You don’t even need to brush your hair!”
“I'll have you know it’s actually quite difficult trying to oil my gears. Something that wouldn't be necessary if you hadn't felt the need to turn a regular cuddle session into a rather intense tickle-war,” Zane ‘yelled’ back.
“We both know that was Jay,” Cole laughed.
“Hey!” Jay protested. “I could have helped you with your gears Zane.”
“I appreciate the offer, but I will be done in just a moment,” he replied.
“Seriously,” Kai said with after another minute of silence. “Did you die in there?”
He realized the mistake as soon as the words left his mouth.
“Shit! Oh my Oni I am so sorry!” The red ninja slapped a hand over his mouth, but the damage was done.
Jay visibly flinched, but Kai would have missed the way Cole’s hands twitched into fists and his jaw locked if he didn’t know his boyfriend so well. They all heard the sound of something crashing from their room where Zane had been getting ready though.
“Zane, are you okay?” Cole asked immediately opening the door.
“Hmm? Yes. I’m fine,” Kai had to hand it to Zane, he wouldn’t have even noticed his hands shaking if he hadn’t been trying to pick up the oil can he had dropped.
“Zane, I am so sorry!” Kai once again apologized, this time throwing himself on his boyfriend. He heard Jay and Cole follow him into the room.
“I… I don’t know what you’re talking about Kai,” the nindroid tried to argue. “There is nothing to be sorry for.”
“Come on, you don’t need to pretend nothing happened.” Jay said.
“Yeah, it's one thing to not talk about it, but it's another thing to just ignore it entirely. It's not healthy Zane,” Cole added.
“I don’t believe now if a good time to discuss this.” Zane fiddled with his bowtie, a sign of his nervousness even more obvious than his previous stuttering. “We have a banquet we’re supposed to speak at tonight about the new protections the city wishes to implement.”
“They won’t miss us,” Jay argued.
“I doubt we were even going to speak,” Cole said. “We were mostly just going to be there to be special celebrity guests.”
“I still don’t think there is anything to discuss,” Zane argued, but it was weak and he had stopped trying to shove Kai off of himself.
“Okay, we’re all going to go change out if these super uncomfortable clothes, and then we’re going to get a bunch of unhealthy food, and then we’re all going to cuddle and talk about our feelings and cry,” Jay said with an air of finality even their ever argumentative ice-power wielding boyfriend couldn’t argue with. His shoulders sighed slightly in defeat, before resuming their ever perfect posture.
“Okay,” He said, and Kai gave him one less squeeze before releasing him so he could put on pajamas like Jay had ordered. He did so quickly and moved to go to the kitchen to get the “bunch of unhealthy food” Jay had mentioned when a calloused hand pulled him back into the room.
“Nope, no you don’t. It’s taking care of Zane hours and we’re not going to let you get out of this.” Cole commanded.
“I was just going to get snacks Jay mentioned,” Zane replied, eyebrow furrowed in confusion.
“He can get them himself,” Cole shrugged and pulled him onto their bed.
Technically, the particular one they landed on had originally been Kai’s bed, but after they discovered the bunk beds could be taken apart fairly easily (with a bit of help from Cole’s considerable strength) all four beds were now pressed together, making one rather large bed that they all shared. It occasionally got rather hot, especially when Kai insisted on being in the middle, but it was perfect for cuddling. Which apparently they were doing now instead of going to the banquet they had promised to attend. Sensei was going to be so displeased.
“Who wants to actually do the, y’know, talking?” Kai asked when he and Jay got back with their multitudes of snacks and settled into the bed with them.
“Ugh,” Cole complained. “I hate this part. Jay’s the one with all the feelings and stuff.”
“I resent that. But I will go first,” Jay said. “Kai what the fuck.”
“I said I was sorry okay!”
“I still do not see why this is an issue. I understand Kai’s joke could bring back memories of my ‘death’ but I don’t believe it is cause for such a reaction.”
“Because we care about you Zane! And because you never talk about what happened to you after you died. We still don’t even know how you ended up on Chen’s island,” Cole answered.
“To be honest, I don’t remember most of it. My old body was destroyed by the Overlord’s power, but since Pixel had half my heart i was able to upload my conscience while Cyborg built me a new body. I was still offline from the transfer when Chen kidnapped me, so I believe I was on the island for around 8 months. Something went wrong in the transfer however, so I wasn’t aware of who I was until a few days before I saw you Cole.” Zane said. His robotic voice was even through the explanation, but the hand that Jay had latched onto twitched when he told them he hadn’t remembered who he was.
“Zane, why didn’t you ever say anything?” He asked.
“It is in the past now. It did not seem relevant.”
“Of course it's relevant!” Kai chided. “We’re supposed to be there for each other after we go through things like this, but we can’t do that if you’re always shutting us out.”
“Apologies. I did not mean to make you feel as though I do not trust you all,” He apologized.
“That’s not the point Zane. The point is that you sacrificed yourself for us, and we want to at least make sure you’re okay after it,” Cole said.
“Oh, I understand now. I appreciate the concern, but I’m fine. It only seemed the logical conclusion that I should be the one to go up against the Overlord. You are all human.”
“Zane if you’re suggesting for even a second that you’re worth less than us because you’re a nindroid I’m going to reprogram that stubborn brain of yours myself.” Cole had to remind himself not to sound angry, because he knew that would just lead to Zane apologizing again, despite the fact that he wasn’t mad at him.
“I just wish to protect all three of you,” Zane defended.
“One day, we’re going to make you realize that your life is worth as much as ours, no matter how long it takes,” Kai said.
Zane hummed a non-commental sound and with that it seemed the conversation was over. Cole who was laying on the end not pressed against the wall, reluctantly stood up to turn off the lights before laying back down and turning to cuddle against Jay, who only let go of Jay’s hand to latch onto his arm instead. Kai was usually not one for cuddling at night, finding that the addition of another person made his unusually high body temperature rise to a level uncomfortable even to him, but Zane was always cold and he was worth a little discomfort anyways, so he wrapped an arm around him and tucked his head against his chest, sighing with relief when Zane relaxed under him. He fell asleep hearing the familiar sound of an internal fan whirring in place of where a heartbeat would normally be.
And Zane would probably never fully believe that simply being a robot didn’t mean he was inherently the one member of the team that should be sacrificed if the situation called for it, but his boyfriends would at least make sure he always knew that he was loved. And that was all that mattered.