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The mission was going badly. The mission in question? Organize the snacks for movie night. Zane was trying desperately to get everyone on track, whilst Jay and Cole were eating whatever their little grabby hands could score as quickly as they could score it. As Zane pleaded that “the snacks are for the movie!” and “a little help?” Kai sat in a chair across the kitchen playing on some sort of handheld device, whereas Nya and Lloyd were absolutely nowhere to be seen. The kitchen was in disarray (as per usual when Sensei hadn’t been on their asses about cleaning in a while). Open bags of chips and candy covered most of the counters, along with the occasional weapon thrown casually on the countertop.
“Kai!” Zane screeched, swatting Cole and Jay away from popcorn. Without looking up from his video game, Kai made a sort of confused noise in Zane’s direction and continued not to pay attention.
“Kai!” Zane yelled again.
This time he actually looked up, “Zane wh- I was… I was doing a thing. It’s an online game I can’t-”
“Okay,” Zane started, “I’m almost finished, I just need to assemble the cracker sandwiches.”
“Cracker…? Dude, you could’ve just popped some popcorn and it would've been fine.” Kai said, grabbing a box of crackers.
“No, I like making these. It relaxes me.”
“Alright, whatever boats your float, dude.” Kai started to copy Zane’s actions with the crackers, grabbing ingredients and squishing them into the mini sandwiches.
When they were just about done, Lloyd and Nya finally decided to show up, chattering while they waltzed into the kitchen.
“Oh, good!” Zane said. “You two can carry these out to the tv room.” Lloyd seemed dejected, but grabbed a plate of crackers anyway. Nya just smiled cheerfully and grabbed a bowl of popcorn, spinning on her heel and walking out of the kitchen.
“Kai? Can you grab the soda?”
“Gotcha” Kai fingergunned at the nindroid before heading to the fridge.
“And Jay and Cole? The rest of the food? Please do not eat it.” Zane sighed.
Cole chuckled. “Yeah I'll… try. No promises, though.”
The gang gathered up the rest of the snacks, and made their way to the living room, where Nya and Lloyd were already situated on different couches facing the TV. Jay vaulted over the couch Nya was on, landing clumsily next to her.
“I'm sitting here.”
Rolling their eyes, Zane calmly sat down next to Jay. As the first couch was now taken, Cole gravitated towards the one Lloyd was sitting on and sat at the opposite end.
“What's up lil dude?” he laughed, holding out his hand for a fist bump.
Lloyd stared at Cole, clearly a bit confused. He tentatively bumped his fist against the other ninja's. “Never call me lil dude again, Cole.”
“You got it, lil dude”
Kai situated himself on the floor in front of the couch Cole and Lloyd were sitting on. He leaned back against the bottom of the sofa, and stretched his legs out. When they were all comfortable, Zane finally grabbed a remote and pressed play on the DVD.
“Wait-” Nya intervened, “what are we watching?”
“Well,” Cole said. “It was Jay's turn to pick, so Kung Fu Panda 2.” This elicited various reactions from the ninja. Lloyd and Kai, groaning. Nya rolling her eyes but smiling all the same. Jay grinning from ear to ear. “Kung Fu Panda 2 is a ninja classic and you could all stand to learn from it!” he insisted, over sounds of protest. Grumbling, the ninja settled in and started watching the movie. Throughout the film, they all shifted positions several times, but none so much as Kai, who had gone from sitting to lying down to weirdly draped over the couch's armrest in a matter of a few minutes. Cole had downed about three cans of mountain dew with no signs of stopping, whereas Lloyd was halfway through the popcorn. Jay, despite having picked the movie, was half asleep. He had his head resting on Nya's shoulder and seemed to be struggling to keep his eyes open. Nya, of course, was wide awake, and didn't seem to care that Jay was drooling on her shoulder.
At one point, Kai gave up, and plopped himself on the couch between Cole and Lloyd.
“Are you even watching the movie,” Cole started, “or are you just brainstorming increasingly ridiculous places to sit?” he raised an eyebrow.
“I'm doing both.”
Nya shushed them from the other couch. “Sorry!” Kai whispered, while she glared daggers at both of them. Kai lowered his voice into a more hushed tone. “Nya's real invested in Kung Fu Panda 2, huh?” And Cole whispered back “So am I, dude. You heard Jay. It's a ninja classic!”
Kai rolled his eyes, and leaned back on the couch, giving up on conversation. He shot a glance at the other couch. Jay was still asleep, half his weight on Nya as he snored. Zane appeared to be organizing their skittles by colour. On his own couch, Lloyd was actually paying attention, but seemed to be absentmindedly running his fingers through his own hair. Cole, on the other side of Kai, was nursing another Mountain Dew. Kai made a mental note to talk to him about his possible addiction later.
To be honest, Kai hadn’t really paid attention to a second of the movie. It was a habit of his (probably a bad one, now he thought about it) not to be paying attention to the proper thing. His eyes were always wandering. To the door, for potential threats. To his fellow ninja. He’d never asked, but he suspected his friends were probably the same way to a point. Always something on the horizon, always something to look out for.
Not today, though. Today it was just them, Kung Fu Panda 2, and Jay's obscene snoring. Moments like this were fewer and farther between than they all would’ve liked, so he’d try to keep the door watching to a minimum. Live in the moment.
And so he quit switching couches, staying wedged between Lloyd and Cole as he paid attention, partly to the movie, mostly to his friends. Lloyd was a lot more fidgety than Kai thought, wiggling around in his seat, wringing his hands, just doing anything to be moving. Cole was still, quiet. If Kai leaned into him a bit he could smell his usual earthy scent when he breathed in. It had become comforting to him, after all the time he’d spent with Cole. He wondered if he smelled of ashes.
When the climax of the movie finally came, the amount of people paying attention to the movie had dwindled to just two, as Zane had taken to seeing how many soda cans they could set on Jay without him waking up. The answer was… far too many. Kai was sure Zane knew the exact number. He'd have to ask them later.
Cole wasn’t paying attention either. If you didn’t know him, you may have thought he was, but Kai could recognise that expression as his zoning-out look anywhere. Elbowing his friend, he whispered,
“You good, man?”
“Huh?” Cole snapped to attention.
“You were zoning out again.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry.” he grumbled.
“No worries,” Kai started, “Everything okay though?”
“Yeah.”
While the movie finished up, and Zane balanced an obscene amount of cans on Jay’s sleeping form, the atmosphere in the room started to get more relaxed. It was getting late, and everyone was tired. The panda… lived happily ever after or something and everyone (everyone who wasn’t Jay at least) felt their eyelids start to get heavier. As the credits rolled, Lloyd let out a huge yawn, inspiring one from Nya as well. Zane, still focused on their task, did no such thing (or… did Zane yawn? Another thing Kai would have to ask).
“Well,” Lloyd announced loudly, enough to startle Jay, who woke up with a start, babbling about something or other as Zane groaned, watching their pop can masterpiece fall to the ground.
“Hi Jay-” Lloyd said, “I think it’s probably bedtime, yeah?”
We all mumbled agreement, and he continued. “We should probably clean this up first.”
“I’ll just take care of it,” Cole offered. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Oh! Okay. Yeah. Thanks, Cole.” Lloyd yawned again.
“Thanks, Cole” the others chimed in inharmoniously.
As everyone else started to filter out of the room, Kai stayed behind, leaning against the wall and watching Cole absent-mindedly start to pick up debris around the couches. Kai headed over to a cupboard near the TV, pulling out a garbage bag and starting to pick up some debris himself.
“You can go to bed, Kai,” his friend offered.
Something about Cole using his name always caught him off guard. “I know. It’s a lot to pick up, though. Figured you could use some help.”
The other boy gave him a small smile. “That I could.”
So they cleaned up, it didn’t take too long with the two of them, and before they knew it, their trash bags were put away with the rest of the ship’s garbage, and they were tangled up on the couch, resting for a moment before they’d go to bed.
“It is nice not to have the place looking like a frat house,” Cole joked.
“God,” Kai snorted. “D’you think I’d make a good frat boy?”
“Oh for sure. No, for sure. How good are your chest bumps?”
“Excellent,” he bragged.
“There you have it then.” Cole smiled.
They sat in silence for a second, then Kai spoke up “Any reason you offered to clean up everybody’s mess, by the way?”
Cole took a breath. “Yeah, just don’t feel like… bunk beds right now.”
Kai nodded. He knew the feeling. As much as he loved everybody, it was a crowded sleeping arrangement, and sometimes it sucked. “We have so many weird storage rooms and shit on this ship, you’d think by now we’d have strong-armed sensei into having our own rooms.”
He laughed at that. “Maybe we should.” He paused. “Well, maybe you should. I wouldn’t be caught dead.”
“Hey!” Kai protested, “You have the strongest arms of us all. Only makes sense you’d do it”
A laugh again. “Tell that to Nya. I’ve got super strength and I think she rivals me.”
“Yeah, ‘cause Nya’s awesome.”
Another pause.
“Well,” Kai said, “there’s always your truck right? You sleep out there sometimes.”
Cole’s eyebrows raised. “You know about that?”
“Yeah… I’ve heard you get up in the middle of the night.”
“And you… followed me?”
“Only once.” he took a breath. “Just wanted to make sure everything was good.”
“I could’ve been going to the bathroom dude. You’re like, a pervert, that’s creepsville.”
Kai shoved him, then. “God, you’re mean!”
They both giggled.
“Anyway,” Cole said, getting a bit more serious. “It’s too cold for that. I have a blanket and stuff but. It’s chillier than usual for this time of year.”
“Are you just gonna stay up then?”
“I don’t know.”
After thinking for a second, Kai’s eyes lit up. “I’ve got it! Come with me.” and he jumped up, motioning after Cole to follow him.
“Wh- okay?” the other boy stuttered, getting up and following Kai to the door.
Kai led him through the bounty, both of them stepping extra quietly as everyone else was asleep, and finally arriving at the door to outside, where Cole’s truck was parked, given that the bounty had been parked pretty consistently at their usual base of operations for months now.
“Just… do your bed thing. Trust me,``Kai urged.
When Cole, shivering, moved to put his blankets inside the truck, Kai stopped him. “No, like, the truck bed.”
“Dude it’s freezing!”
“I said trust me, didn’t I?”
And he did, throwing the blanket, pillow, and… kind of mattress-shaped cushion(?) he had onto the bed of the truck, climbing in like he had the last time Kai saw him do this.
‘Okay, move over,” Kai said as he climbed in next to Cole, grabbing some of the blanket from him. “Now watch this.”
Kai concentrated. He’d only done this by himself, but it’d been successful every time, as it was this time. He felt his body warming up as he willed the heat to come from his skin. Cole, right next to him, felt a bit of it, and looked at him confused.
“It’s fine, it’s not fire.” Kai explained. “Here.” he held an arm up. “Feel.”
The other boy did so, putting a hand on Kai’s arm, and looking up at him again. “You’re… like a heater.”
“Yeah.”
“I didn’t know you could do this!”
“Neither did I? Until recently, I guess, uh. Cold doesn’t really bother me so. I guess I never needed to like. Heat up my body but. Turns out I can.”
Cole scooched closer to him, pressing up against the warm feeling as it continued to fill the space under the blanket. “This is… awesome.”
Kai chuckled. “Yeah I’m pretty epic.”
“Don’t ruin it.”
“Got it.” he said sheepishly. “I think I can keep it up while I’m sleeping, once I turn it on it just kind of does this until I make it stop. But, y’know if you wake up and it’s cold just. Shake me up and I can do it again.”
Cole nodded. ‘You’re gonna… sleep here, then?”
“Well yeah. If that’s… okay.”
“Yeah.”
They didn’t talk much more before sleep overtook them, Kai lying on his back, facing the stars straight above, Cole on his stomach, an arm wrapped around Kai’s waist, both of them sharing a closeness they’d both attribute to the need for warmth, if asked.
When dawn came, it would find them wrapped in each other’s arms, no danger in sight, and warmer than the cold around them, the rest of the ninja still in their beds, dreaming of Kung Fu Panda 2 and trash towers.