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Zane was conflicted. On one hand, Kai and Lloyd kept urging him to download the files on the newest bad guys they were fighting to make tracking them that much easier, but at the same time, he had yet to get a second opinion from his technologically-inclined boyfriend. Jay was out with Nya at his parents' junkyard looking for scraps, and since there was no cell service there, he was left high and dry.
The files were encrypted, which meant he had to download them decipher them, but the source was... sketchy, to say the least.
"Please, Zane?" Kai asked, rolling a cable between his thumb and forefinger. He had no idea what it did, but he hoped it appeared the opposite. "It'll save us a lot of time."
"And think of all the stuff you'll learn," Lloyd chimed in, trying to be helpful. "You'll be like a walking computer!"
Zane tried not to take offense to that.
"The files seem, how do I put this, a little untrustworthy," The android began, not keen on taking the cord from the Fire Ninja's hands. "I- I could contract a virus, or-"
"Nah, that only happens in movies," Lloyd denied. "Even if you did, you just tell another hacker to whip up some code for you and you're good."
"That is most definitely not how that works-"
"Please?"
"But I-"
"Come on, Zane!"
"I..."
The two troublemakers finished their argument with making metaphorical puppy-eyes at the Ice Ninja, who bit his lip nervously.
"Please?" Lloyd gave Zane his best "innocent" face, which he knew the Ice Ninja always fell for.
"Are you sure I won't contract anything from this?"
"Positive."
"One-hundred percent sure."
The android still looked uneasy, but sighed and decided to trust his brothers' judgement.
"Alright, fine. I will download what you ask of me."
Kai was surprised the next day to wake up to no breakfast. Usually Zane or at the very least Jay was up and making eggs or pancakes. There was no clatter in the kitchen or delicious smells wafting down the hallway. He debated checking up on his fellow ninja, but decided cereal was more important and made the trek down to the cabinet housing his favorite brands. He walked in, and noticed Cole already at the table, drinking his coffee and just as confused as Kai.
"You know where Frosty is? I didn't want to wake him up if he was sleeping, so I just didn't check."
"Haven't seen him yet. I just woke up."
Cole hummed, going back to his drink. It was then that Lloyd walked in, followed by an agitated Nya who merely shot Kai a glare as she grabbed as many protein and fruit bars as she could before she strode out. Lloyd cleared his throat, and Kai could feel what was coming.
"She, uh, found out. It did happen."
"Found out what?" Cole asked, raising an eyebrow at the two.
"So we may have given Zane a virus-"
"You what?"
When the Earth Ninja lightly tread to where he could hear faint mumbling, which happened to be Zane and Jay's shared room, he knocked before being let in by a very unamused Sensei.
"Did you know about this?" His teacher questioned, and Cole denied it immediately.
"No way. I'm not this dumb."
When Cole peered around the doorframe, he really wanted to slap some sense into two ninja still eating breakfast as if nothing was wrong. Jay was holding Zane in his lap, and the Ice Ninja's face was buried in his shoulder and his arms were wound tightly around Jay's torso, fingers digging into whatever skin he could reach. He was obviously in pain, small whimpers escaping his lips every now and then. The Lightning Ninja looked ready to kill.
"You better not have been involved in this or I'm punting your ass off the Bounty."
"Language, Jay."
"Sorry Sensei."
Nya was behind them, sorting the bars she had taken on the nightstand. Cole believed she was muttering the word "stupid" over and over again, but he wasn't too sure.
"So, I got the run down of how this whole thing started, but what's going on with him?" The Earth Ninja had now moved to rub Zane's shoulder, feeling it tremble from exhaustion and pain beneath his touch.
"I think his sensitivity's stuck on max, when it's normally at half. So, uh, if you wouldn't touch him that'd be great," Jay said in a much calmer tone then before, and Cole retracted his hand so fast it was as if Zane's skin was burning. "His audio's gone weird, I know that, because he can't hear us right now. His system's fans are only working at half speed, so his he's overheating. I tried to get him to open his chest panel to air him out, but he hasn't given up this position since I got here, really."
Now that Cole really paid attention, Jay looked dead tired, bags under his eyes prominent and dark.
"And how long has that been?"
"I woke up to him crying at two in the morning because his mechanisms were locking up and it hurt so much to breathe that I had to get out the oil and lube him up just for him to stop gasping for air. It feels like something new goes wrong every hour now."
Cole made a sympathetic noise, looking on as Zane tensed, overwhelmed by some new, foreign wave of hurt.
"I'm still saying we should shut him down," Nya piped up from her space behind the bed.
"I told you, this is something that just needs to run its course. Shutting him down will just prolong it. Once his antivirus catches up, it'll be fine," The Lightning Ninja gently rested his cheek on his boyfriend's hair. "I would go yell at Kai and Lloyd right now, but I'm a little hung up at the moment."
"I'll get it," Nya volunteered. "I know one of the idiots personally."
Sensei followed her, presumably to save the boys from eternal damnation, and so Cole was left with the pair.
"Can you grab a few ice packs?" Jay asked quietly, despite there being no reason to do so. "And a bunch of towels. The ice directly on his skin would hurt too much right now."
Cole nodded, and stepped out for a few moments. As soon as the door shut, Zane happened to let out a sob muffled by Jay's shirt and neck, which made the Lightning Ninja hold him tighter, but only slightly. He knew that to Zane his fairly light grip was like a normal firm hug at the moment.
"I'm so sorry," Jay mumbled into blonde hair. "I wish I could help you more."
He pressed a light kiss to the patch of softness he could reach just before Cole returned, a bundle in his hands. Jay wrapped each ice pack in a few towels before slipping them in various places such as in between the two and under the android's thighs, as Zane's shirt had been lost at the initial threat of overheating. His pants had been kept on for dignity's sake. The two heard faint yelling start from somewhere far away, Zane still unaware.
"Anything more I can do?" Cole offered, and Jay shook his head.
"There's not much I can do either. I'm just his anchor at this point. Go join in with Nya and Sensei, I guess. I'm sure they're having fun."
"Alright. Just... I'm sorry on their behalf," Cole sighed, exiting before Jay could get in a word edgewise.
The Lightning Ninja was alone, holding a robot that was shaking like a leaf in his arms. Not quite the usual situation. He kept talking in a low voice, knowing that Zane could feel the vibrations and hoped he was getting at least some comfort out of it. After a while, he felt a shift, and looked down to see Zane staring up at him, pale blues tinged red from crying.
"Hi," Jay hiccupped, and Zane read his lips, drumming his fingers on Jay's side as his own form of a wave. "Better?"
The Ice Ninja glanced downwards for a second before shrugging.
"At least you're awake," Jay grumbled to himself, and Zane nuzzled back into his shoulder, tensing up when Jay adjusted his grip, new areas of his body reacting to the touch with warning signs thrown about in his vision, making him wince.
"Sorry, sorry," The Lightning Ninja cooed, resting his head on Zane's once again.
When Zane's condition actually started to improve, Cole and Sensei rejoined them while Nya supervised Kai and Lloyd's apology chores. Cole was tasked with feeding Zane any food he could while the android remained immobile against Jay's chest, and Sensei just hated to see his gentle student in so much pain. The Earth Ninja tore off a piece of the fruit bar he was holding, gently nudging his fingers against Zane's cheek to get his attention.
The Ice Ninja looked at him through squinted, pained eyes, and the offering was held up. Zane merely looked away ashamedly, but accepted anyway when it was poked against his lips. Jay just pet his hair and pressed soft kisses to his forehead, his sensitivity having decreased to almost normal levels as time had passed. Sensei sat on the side of Zane that Cole wasn't on, rubbing a gentle hand over the white-clothed back. There were no more sounds of pain emitting from the Ice Ninja as he curled up in his boyfriend's arms, he just wanted to be held while his system worked over the virus in waves.
All of a sudden, Zane perked up, attentive to what was happening.
"Hearing back?" Jay said softly, and the android nodded, a large weight off his shoulders as the main problems left were the underperforming fans.
"We'll leave you guys alone," Cole stood, and Sensei followed with one last ruffle of Zane's hair. Jay turned his gaze down to the Ice Ninja, who returned the gesture.
"Hey honey," Jay smiled sappily, and Zane hummed at a pleasant pitch. "Feel like moving around a bit?"
"Not really," The android's voice was creaky, like it needed to be oiled. "I just want to stay here with you."
How could Jay say no when his boyfriend was so sweetly requesting just a little more intimacy?
"Sure," The Lightning Ninja adjusted their position so they were laying down on their bed, heads resting against pillows. "I love you."
"I love you too, Jay," The Ice Ninja snuggled into his partner's shoulder, Jay hazily thinking that he liked it when Zane was all dopey and cuddly.
"I'm sure your body is tired, hm? Let's just take a nap while your cooling system resets."
Zane just nodded, tucking his chin into Jay's arm as his breathing mellowed out, becoming deep and long as he fell into a sleep stricken with exhaustion. Jay couldn't fall asleep quite as fast, instead lazily drifting off as his own breaths began to match the rising and falling of Zane's chest.
Even as he was slowly being pulled under, the anger he felt at Kai and Lloyd still bubbled in his chest and stomach. He couldn't believe they would take advantage of his kind, trusting partner in such a personal way. He knew they were going to be scared to face him later. Jay soothingly rubbed a hand over his boyfriend's back, the pained whimpers from earlier filling his ears as he tried to replace them with Zane's calm and only slightly audible breathing.
He would wake up later to a dream of Zane's skin slowly melting off because of an infection, so it was the Ice Ninja's turn to hold his partner, and they both knew this virus would haunt them long after it was purged from the android's system.