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Kai snuck into Nya's room, working fast so as to get out of there as quickly as possible without being caught.
He walked over to her mirror and started looking through all her drawers. Where could it be? Why would she even move her stuff around that much? As he searched through the final drawers, he heard footsteps outside the room coming nearby, forcing him to hurry.
He finally found it. That small box he was looking for. It was roughly the size of an average book, though probably a bit smaller. It was small enough to fit in his hoodie pocket, which is where he shoved it into before he slowly crept towards the door. He peeked his head out to see if there was anybody still out in the hallway, but when he didn't see anyone, decided to step out.
It's a shame he forgot he lived in a house full of stealthy ninjas, because as he began to make his way to his room, he heard someone say, “Kai?”
He froze in his steps and slowly turned around. He smiled innocently. “Hey Nya.”
“What were you doing in my room?” she asked, a suspicious look on her face.
“I uh- I was uh…” Kai looked around, searching for an excuse. “I was, oh! I was looking for you, actually!”
“Yeah?” Nya raised an eyebrow, with her hands on her hips. “What'd you need me for?”
“Um. Uh. Jay! He said- he told me to tell you that he needs help. He’s, uh, at the bridge. Yeah, that's where you'll find him.” Kai cringed at his own words. He wasn't exactly the best at lying.
“Uh huh,” Nya replied, not sounding convinced one bit. “Alright. I guess I'll head over there now then.”
She walked past him, still eyeing him with suspicion.
He waited until she left, and a little bit after for good measure, before sprinting towards his room.
He kicked the door closed with his leg, though in his excited rush, forgot to lock the door like he always did.
He didn't realize though, as he excitedly sat on his bed and pulled out the box. He opened it, revealing a plethora of colorful bottles of nail polish, all of them neatly organized by color.
He immediately reached for the brightest red he could see, pulling it out and reading the label. SWEET SCARLET. His favorite shade. Nya still kept it in her collection. Even after all these years, she continued to buy it. Had she known he would want to use it again? She couldn't have.
Nya used to always paint Kai's nails when they were kids. He remembered the day when she first asked him if she could paint his nails because she didn't have an girl friends to paint her nails with and she wanted to do a complicated pattern that she couldn't do on herself.
Kai would pretend not to like it at first, but then quickly took a liking to it. He and Nya would periodically get their nails painted together, as a sort of bonding tradition.
However, he stopped allowing her to do it one day. He remembered the first day he told her no, and the look of disappointment she had on her face as she asked why. But Kai never told her why, and she eventually stopped asking. The reason why is because when he got older, other boys his age began to bully him for it, saying it was a girl's thing and called him a faggot for wearing nail polish.
But after all those years, he missed it. And for the past few days he'd been secretly taking Nya's nail polishes and painting his nails. He would paint them in his room and just admire them, before he removed them with nail polish remover not long after. This was the first time he'd been caught in Nya's room, however. He should be more careful, he realized.
Nya always used to do crazy designs on his nails. He wasn't really good at that type of stuff, which was a shame, so he stuck to simple one color nails.
He was just close to finishing his right hand when he heard a voice at his door coming closer. He started freaking out and quickly shoved the box underneath a nearby pillow.
He held the red nail polish, hiding it behind his back.
“Hey Kai. Nya asked me to tell you that if you're stealing her money, that you don't need to and you could have just asked.” The second half of his sentence sounded more clear when Cole stepped into the room.
Kai smiled faux cheerfully. “Oh. Yes. Alright. Tell her I will.”
Cole frowned, stepping further into the room. “Sorry. Was I interrupting something?”
“No! Nothing!” Kai said, again, though he didn't sound convincing at all.
Cole looked around the room, smelling the air. Oh, shit. He should have opened the window before starting. “Is that nail polish?”
“No!” Kai denied, trying to close the bottle of nail polish behind him, but failed miserably and caused the open bottle to tip over. “Fuck!” he exclaimed, instantly forgetting about hiding and turned to fix his mess. Fuck, these were Nya's!
“Whoa!” Cole walked over to help Kai. “I think we've got some paper towels somewhere around here. Hold on.” Cole looks around the room, returning with a box of tissues. “This will have to do.”
He helped Kai clean up the spilled polish that landed on his bed . Kai was flushing with extreme embarrassment, as Cole knelt in front of him, trying to rub off the polish.
He stepped back and went to throw away the used tissues. Kai's mind was racing with thoughts. A majority of them being just a bunch of Fuck Fuck Fuck’s, and with the shame of how he'd been caught. Fuck, what did Cole think of him now? Did he think he was a sissy? Would he treat him any different now? Oh fuck, he probably hated him now. He'd never talk to him again. Fuck.
“Don't worry, it won't stain too bad. We can wash it off,” he says, as if realizing the worried look on Kai's face. “I'm sorry for startling you. I didn't mean to.”
“It's alright,” Kai lied, his heart pounding in his chest. Why hasn't Cole reacted? Why hasn't he said anything about it? Oh, fuck, he was probably embarrassed. He was a fucking embarrassment. Kai's eyes widened. A realization hit him suddenly. Wait-
“Huh. How did you know that it was nail polish? From the smell, that is.”
Cole laughed, completely unexpected to Kai. “Are you kidding me? I used to paint my nails all the time!”
Kai was incredulous for a second. Cole? Cole was the last person he'd think would ever have painted their nails. “Really?”
“Yeah man. My nails were always painted black from when I was emo. I thought that much was obvious,” Cole joked. “I mean, I kept the hair,” he flipped it, smiling at Kai. “And the color, of course.”
Kai laughed, easing up slightly. So Cole wasn't gonna make fun of him for it?
“It'd be fun to paint them again, actually. You got black?”
Kai's heart skipped a beat. Had he heard correctly? “You want me to paint them?”
Cole smiled. “Sure! If you want to.”
Kai smiled giddily, grabbing the box from its hidden place under the pillow. He picked out a shade of black that matched Coles sweater in color. COAL BLACK it read, and Kai smiled at the coincidence.
“Here. Lay your hand here,” Kai grabbed Coles right hand and placed it on a pillow for support, then got to work.
Kai worked in silence for a little, before Cole spoke up. “You didn't think I was gonna make fun of you for painting your nails, did you?”
Kai frowned. “I mean. A lot of people would. A lot of people did…”
Kai looked up to meet Coles eyes when he was responded to with silence. “Nobody here's going to judge you, Kai.”
Kai blushed at the sincerity of the comment. He looked down, Cole's gaze becoming too intense for him to handle. He switched to Cole's left hand, holding it with his own. They felt strong and gentle at the same time. A perfect description for Cole himself.
“Yeah. I guess I was just scared. About the possibility of that not being the case. I already went through that outside of my group. I didn't want it to be the same with my close friends and family.”
“Well, you don't have to hide it anymore. We'll still love you no matter what it is you like. We just want you to be yourself.”
Kai felt a wave of bashfulness wash over him. “Thanks Cole.”
Cole smiled at him. “I'm assuming these are Nya's. This what you stole from her earlier?”
Kai laughed. “Heh, yeah. She's the one who introduced it to me, actually. I didn't have the guts to ask to borrow them from her. I stopped letting her when we got older, but she kept my favorite color.” He held his hand up for Cole to see. “I guess it was stupid of me to think she'd judge me for it.”
“Hey, you haven't finished your hand,” Cole eyed Kai's unfinished nails.
“Oh right. You interrupted me. There's not much left in the bottle now.”
“Sorry,” Cole said sheepishly. “Oh, you can just paint it black.”
“Huh?”
“Let me?” Cole asked, grabbing Kai's hand.
Oh. Kai's brain short circuited, nodding to Cole as permission.
He painted the nails on his last two small fingers black, with a steady hand. He had a concentrated look on his face while he did it, and Kai couldn't help but notice how fucking cute he looked like that.
“There. You're done.”
Kai lifted his hand, admiring it from up close. It gave him warm feelings inside. It was like he had a little part of Cole displayed on his hand.
“Hey. Look, now we're matching.”
Kai looked up to see that Cole had used the remainder of the red polish to finish his own two nails on his left hand.
“And look.” Cole lifted Kai's hand and pressed it up against his. He then intertwined their last two fingers together. “It's like a little puzzle!” Like that, both sides of their hands were complete, with all five fingers the same color. “That's cute isn't it?” Cole asked with a bit of uncertainty laced in his words.
Kai met Cole's eyes, seeing the hesitance in them as well.
“I love it.”
Cole laughed, still a little bashful. “Heh, that's cool then-” Kai interrupted whatever awkwardness he was about to spew by tackling him into a hug. It took Cole by surprise at first, but he hugged back just as tightly soon after.
“Thank you, Cole.”
“Happy to help, Kai.”