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“One of these days, you’re going to end up giving me a heart attack,” Kai’s voice rings in his ears, tone wavering with slight amusement, but his gaze was fixed and promised Lloyd that he meant it. Which, okay, fair enough, Lloyd couldn’t blame him for that, but it wasn’t necessarily his fault either!
“Hey, it’s not like I choose to get stabbed billions of times,” Lloyd argued back in a mumble, crossing his arms, which proved to be a rather difficult task with the IV latched onto his left hand. But he was the green ninja, he wasn’t about to be defeated by some stupid cable line. “Why would I even want to be here! The hospital sucks! It always smells like medicine and the food is always gushy and hot and gross.”
“ No, Lloyd, that’s only because you’re only ever here when you’re seconds away from death!” Kai retorts, his voice borderline hysterical as he shoved a hand through his gelled hair. And then he huffs out a laugh. “Is this how sensei Wu used to feel about us during missions? One day I’m gonna go into cardiac arrest and it’ll be your fault.”
Lloyd gives him a pointed look of confusion, scrunching up his nose. “I just said it’s not my choice to get stabbed! I’d rather not bleed out to death either, you know!”
“Then stop making reckless and impulsive decisions!”
“Well, aren’t you one to talk about impulsive, mister-embodiment-of-fire!”
“That is irrelevant! Name me one time I’ve ever been impulsive!”
“Are you serious, Kai? That would take an entire hour!”
Unable to argue against that, Kai falters slightly, jaw tightening while Lloyd smiled smugly at him. Though his expression turns softer when Kai refuses to look at him, choosing to, instead, stare at the marble tiles of the hospital, fists clenched and eyes furrowed. The blonde frowns and shakes his head.
“You know, it’s not your fault if I get stabbed. You shouldn’t worry about it, I’m fine now,” Lloyd says, looking at his bandaged body, the wound still rather fresh but no longer painful. Kai looks over up at Lloyd and sighs.
“I know, buddy, but I promised to look after you,” Kai mutters, ruffling up Lloyd’s hair into a messy bundle of curls. To his surprise, Lloyd doesn’t pull away or slap his hand off. “You’re my little brother. It’s kind of my job to worry.”
At that, Lloyd scowls, straightening his back as though he wanted to appear bigger than he was. “I am not little anymore.”
“Actually, we have no way to prove that. We still don’t know how exactly the Tomorrow’s Tea affected your body. For all we know, you could be, like, 12,” Kai suggests playfully, earning a huffed out laugh from Lloyd as he pushed the fire ninja softly. “I can assure you, I’m not twelve.”
“Sure. Could’ve fooled me,” grins the red ninja, earning a sound of offence from Lloyd. “I’m not even short! And I do not act twelve!”
“Remind me again, who was the person who punched the wall of the monastery the other day to prove that they were ‘hardcore’ and ended up having to go to the medical station for a broken wrist?”
Lloyd’s mouth drapes open, staring at Kai with a look of feigned betrayal. “It was one time.”
“One time too many. I’m getting grey hairs here, squirt,” Kai says with a breathy laugh, shovelling his hand through his own brown hair.
Their banter trails off into a comfortable silence. Kai looks around the room and back at Lloyd in endearment, and Lloyd looked almost ready to fall back asleep. And that would be fine. He needed his rest, Kai as well, but he had to watch over his brother. For just a little bit longer. Though seeing Lloyd falling asleep in such a peaceful silence, it’s very tempting to join in.
The door to the hospital room bursts open and Kai snaps back awake. Miraculously, when the fire ninja looked over, Lloyd was still soundlessly drifting into sleep. Jay and Nya stood by the doorway, Cole and Zane peering behind them. Kai hushes them as soon as they make eye contact, his index finger hovering over his lips.
“Shh! Lloyd’s asleep,” Kai whisper-yells, getting up from his seat. Looking back at his teammates, he noticed they all had sustained a fair amount of injuries as well. Nya’s arm was bent in a cast, Jay had bandages wrapped all around his head, Cole had multiple bruises and cuts, some covered by a bandage.
One day, Kai relents hopelessly, one day, these idiots will be the reason for his death. When they put down his tomb in the graveyard, it’ll be listed; “Kai Smith. Cause of death: dumb fucking ninja family keeps on getting injured and he suffered from heart failure.”
“Woah, dude. Your hair’s a total mess! Might wanna use some more of that gel,” snides Jay wittily, yelping as quietly as he could when Nya jabbed him with her not-broken arm. His sister look at him, her gaze calculating, before she walked inside of the room with a deep sigh. “You need a break, bro,” Nya says, patting Kai on the shoulder. “You look like you haven’t slept in days.”
“Maybe I haven’t! If only a certain group of ninja decided to not get hurt for once,” Kai exasperatedly says, his arms thrashing in the air animatedly. At least Nya and Jay had the decency to look guilty, Cole and Zane merely shrugged from the back.
“Well, we’re fine now,” Cole says with a shrug, walking over to Kai’s other side. “Go take a break. A nap, some snacks, maybe even a drink. We’ll be here the entire time, promise. Go on and rest. We can take care of Lloyd.”
“It would be a lot more efficient to have us four watch over Lloyd while you get some rest, in case you have forgotten that time–”
Kai cut him off before he could continue, already knowing what story was about to be foretold. “Alright, alright, Zane, you don’t have to tell me,” he says with a grimace, before he sighs in defeat and rubs the nape of his neck. He turned over to the sleeping Lloyd on his bed, he wants so badly to join in and take a nap too, but he’s still too worried about that. But, the team was right. He could use some food in his system. Begrudgingly, Kai began to nod his head. “I’ll be right back. I’m just gonna go get some food and maybe a drink.”
A break. Just a few minutes. Some well deserved rest, Kai thinks. He spares the team one last glance before he walks out of the room, closing the door quietly shut.
Kai walks along the corridors of the hospital, for once happy that he’d spent so many all-nighters on videogames before. Thanks to those long spent nights, he was used to walking around sleep-deprived. He didn’t stumble over his feet anymore, which proved to be useful since he had to walk down a whole set of stairs to reach the vending machine on the first floor (the lift was broken and Kai doesn’t quite know why they didn’t have a vending machine on each floor, but he digressed. It wasn’t his hospital to judge).
Honestly, Kai loved his family. A lot. Kai is a family guy, as were the other ninja, but it felt nice to be able to care for himself every once in a while. To be free of their headache-causing tendencies was nice, although Wu and Cole claimed that he was equally as bad as the rest of them. He took a deep breath as he finally reached the first floor. It was quiet and cold, the nurses and receptionist were chattering quietly, and the few patients that were there had been quiet the entire time.
Quiet. Quiet is something that Kai wouldn’t say was to his liking, nor would it be something he was familiar with, considering how rowdy and messy his family was. But quiet was nice sometimes.
He let out the deep breath, smiling to himself as he marched towards the vending machine. Just some chips and a drink, then he could return back to the room and voila! No more stress, much more rest.
Looking back at it, he realised how weird it was that Lloyd had managed to get stabbed during the mission. Nya breaking her arm and Jay banging his head against a hard surface was expected, they were ninja who moved at an inhuman speed, and chases always had obstacles, but getting stabbed was entirely avoidable. It was because Lloyd was too stupidly trusting and too stupidly impulsive. Getting stabbed by some lowlife mugger… Kai shook his head.
Kai hadn’t been there for the mission himself. He was with Pixal, taking care of a rather small case by a small village. And Kai had expected the team to be able to take care of themselves, so could you imagine his surprise when Pixal suddenly beeped and told him that three of his teammates had landed in the hospital? Three! Granted, there were times when it had been all six of them, but it never made the situation any less stressful! Kai was about ready to pass out when Nya and Lloyd’s names were among the list.
Pixal told him that they were alright. They would suffice and there was nothing he should worry about; but how could he not? His stupidly reckless family. How was he still alive anymore? Here he was, in his mid-twenties, and already counting on grey hairs and a heart attack. He was practically fossilizing at this point and it was all the ninja’s fault.
Returning back to the base after their case had been settled, Kai immediately said his goodbyes and took off to the hospital. At the time he’d arrived, the entire team were all asleep. Lloyd, Nya and Jay were on separate beds but in the same room, and Cole and Zane long passed out on the guest chairs. He was only able to stay for a few minutes before Pixal called for him to help out file their final report of their mission. Though reluctant, he followed through with her request.
The next time he visited, which was earlier, it had only been Lloyd in the room. He was drifting in and out of consciousness, and he didn’t know whether to be relieved or upset.
Thank the FSM Lloyd had such a strangely strong pain tolerance. Perhaps they would have to look into that at some point. For now, Kai won’t question it.
Straightening out a ten-dollar bill, he’d slowly pushed it inside the vending machine and selected a bag of sour and cream chips. He preferred the spicy ones, but, just in case anyone else from the team wanted some, he’d have to choose something that Jay’s unreasonably intolerant tongue could withstand. Seeing the snack get pushed out of its place, he dug his hand inside the small box under the vending machine and took it out. Now for a drink…
He pulled out a five-dollar bill this time, shovelling it inside, only for the note to jam and pull back out. Kai felt his eye twitch. He pulled it back out and straightened it, reentering it into the slot, only for it to be rejected again. Oh, for the love of the FSM, Kai did not have time for this. He let out an annoyed grunt, thrashing the bill violently back into his purse and grabbing another 5-dollar bill. Thankfully, the vending machine accepted it graciously.
He settled for a bottle of Pocari Sweat. Jay claimed that it tasted too sweet, but Zane and Cole argued that it tasted pretty good for a sports drink. Kai agreed with them too.
With the snack and drink ready, he faced up the sets of stairs in front of him.
Ah. Here comes the annoying part of a hospital with a broken lift. Seriously, what were the odds? Lloyd and his infectious bad luck. It was probably his fault.
Eventually, he made it up the stairs, panting and catching his breath. He leaned against a wall and that’s when he heard an explosion. An explosion that was far too familiar and far too close to where Lloyd’s room would be.
Kai cursed to himself, adrenaline fueling his lungs as he rushed towards the room, slamming the door open, only to find himself at a loss of words at the sight that greeted him. Lloyd was wide awake, his hand glowing with a bright green, staring up at Jay, who was hanging by the lights of the room – the lights that were broken, mind you – Nya and Zane were by the edge of the room, the walls having broken off and they stared down from the hole they’d made, whereas Cole was trying to get Jay down from below him.
One of these days, Kai’s mind promised. One of these days.
“I leave you guys for five minutes,” Kai’s voice sharply cuts through the silence, all attention turning towards him. “ Five. ”
“Uh… surprise?” Jay says in a shrill voice, waving from where he was slung around the lights. At that exact moment, he slipped off and fell on top of Cole, who grunted and immediately pushed him off.
Kai turns his focus onto the broken wall by Nya and Zane, his eyes narrowing. How the hell–? “Do I even want to know?”
Nya hides her free hand behind her back and whistles absentmindedly. Zane, on the other hand, sheepishly smiles at him, a guilty look plaguing his robotic features. “Lloyd accidentally broke the lightbulb when Jay startled him awake. Jay offered to try and fix it, but, uh, it hadn’t worked out as intended.”
Kai blinks at the nindroid, then throws his arms up in the air in confusion. “How– How?? How did that ,” Kai motioned towards the broken lightbulb, then moved his hand to what used to be the walls of the room, “result in that ?”
“It didn’t. Jay jumped up to the lightbulb while he was cranky” “I wasn’t cranky–! ” ”and it sent a spark towards the wall, and Nya tried to stop it, but electricity and water don’t exactly end well." "Which is stupid. Me and Jay are very compatible!" "Zane tried to freeze the water,” “A severe miscalculation.” “but then it exploded,” Cole attempted to summarize, earning himself a piercing glare from Kai as the fire ninja assessed the room. Despite the explanation, Kai still can’t seem to wrap his head around the explanation.
Five minutes. He was gone for five minutes!
Kai walked over to a vacant bed and slumped his body over it with a heavy sigh. There are concerned calls reaching his ears but Kai thinks they deserve to feel worried. He groaned, throwing the chips and bottle of Pocari Sweat over to Lloyd while he turned his body around so he was facing up at the ceiling. “Eat. I am going to bed.”
“Wha– but this is your–! ”
Kai’s soft snores fill the room and all of them go quiet, leaving no room for any of them to protest. None of them knew falling asleep could be so easily commanded. Then again, he looked restless, so perhaps it was just his fatigue catching up after all these days.
“Well… at least he’s getting some rest, I guess?” Jay attempted with a grimace, scratching the back of his neck. The rest of the team nodded in agreement, Lloyd slowly ripping the bag of chips open, leaning forward when Cole and Nya reached for a serving.
“Uh. We’re gonna have to pay the hospital for this,” Zane brings up, scanning the room for the damage. The way his lips thinned into a line made everyone silently cringe.
“Oh. That’s quite a lot of unrepairable damage. We might have to do some volunteering soon.”
“Aw, man, Jay, this is all your fault.”
“What– Me?! It’s Lloyd’s fault for breaking it in the first place!”
“Hey! I wouldn’t have broken it if you hadn’t woken me up!”
“Whatever, shortass, I can’t hear you from up here!”
“Language, Jay.”
“Shut up, Zane!”
“No, both of you shut up, you’ll wake Kai up!”
“Nya, he sleeps like a literal bear.”
“You’re one to talk, Cole! I still won’t forget the time you slept over my copy of Starfarer issue 79.”
“Dude, shut up, we’re talking about Kai , stop making everything about you. And that stupid comic-”
“It’s not stupid! ” both Jay and Lloyd cried out at the same time.
“Kai likes it too! If he were awake, he’d totally be reading the newest release.”
As if on cue, Kai lets out a frustrated groan and hauls an unoccupied pillow in their direction. “Shut up!”
Yelping, they barely manage to dodge the attack before they all snap their jaws shut, whispering a quiet “yes, sir!” despite the way Kai’s body goes slack again.
Maybe one day, he might actually burst a blood vessel, but today was not that day.