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Cole takes a long deep breath and inhales the scent of the salty ocean, which had grown stronger as they finally reached the shore of the beach.
The weather in Ninjago had hit 95 degrees at that point, and was expected to get higher. The ninja all agreed to go to the beach to relax and cool off.
“Over here!” The blue ninja exclaims.
Cole looks up from his thoughts to see Jay running towards an empty spot on the beach and jumps and cheers in victory as he beats the group of people who were trying to get it as first.
He gives the group an apologetic look as they scold them, walking away.
They settle down on the spot and make themselves comfy.
While setting his stuff down, Cole looks over to Kai, who seemed to be basking in the heat of the sun.
His chestnut hair was blowing gently from the small breeze, hovering gently over his eyes of the same color, which were twinkling from the light of the sun. His shirt was off, putting his smaller but still muscular figure on full view. His toned stomach was shining as light sweat beamed on it.
He looked absolutely captivating, Cole’s heart skipping a beat and unable to take his eyes off of him as he was bent over, setting down the cooler.
Suddenly he feels sand hit his face, and hears an obnoxious familiar laugh follow right after he’s pulled out of his trance.
“What the hell Jay!?” Cole exclaims as Jay clutches his stomach, laughing.
“What are you gawking at Cole?” Jay accuses. He then looks over to Kai and smiles menacingly, “Or should I say, who are you gawking at.”
Cole growls but stands up straight as he finishes brushing off the remaining sand that was kicked at him. He glares at Jay, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Jay laughs, unconvinced, “Yeah sure, okay.” He makes his way over to Nya, who was with the others.
Cole groans, annoyed. “Whatever”
He lays down his towel onto the ground and sits. Once again, he looks to where Kai was, but he’s missing from his original spot. He then finally spots his bright red shorts, right by the shore.
He contemplates walking over to him, but shuts down the idea shortly after. He groans as he lays down on his towel, and looks up at the blue sky.
His feelings for the fire ninja were becoming harder to ignore. He had been wanting to confess them to him for quite a while, but he simply couldn’t. Getting too anxious or nervous right as he was going to.
He didn’t tell anyone about these feelings, but some people, seemed to be catching onto them already.
Cole rubs his hands over his face and sighs. He lets his eyes close as he drifts off into slumber.
***
When Cole opens his eyes again, he’s met with a pinkish-orange color, instead of the blue one he fell asleep to. He puts two and two together and panics as he sits up abruptly.
He’s instantly met with the view of the red ninja grabbing water out of the cooler, and their eyes meet. “Well good morning there, Rocky Boy.” He says as he smiles.
Cole blushes at the nickname, “Good morning.” He greets back softly, still dazed.
He looks around to see that the beach is less crowded, and the others are gone. His face twists into confusion.
Kai seems to notice his confusion as he goes on to explain. “The others went to go get ice cream. We didn’t wanna leave you here alone or wake you up cuz you looked so peaceful, so I stayed.” He says casually as he settles down next to him. On the towel which he had seemingly placed next to his when Cole was asleep.
Cole stares at the smaller boy, taking in the information. “Oh. Thanks. ” He finally says.
Kai smiles at him and nods, Cole smiles back and breaks their eye contact. Kai goes on to drink his water.
Cole then thinks to himself and comes to a realization.
Him and Kai were alone.
On a beach.
With the sun setting right in front of their eyes.
Shit. He thinks.
This was a great chance to finally confess his feelings. The setting, the isolation from the others, the peacefulness, it was all perfect.
But Cole wasn’t prepared at all, was this really a good idea?
“Want some?” The question from the other boy pulls him out of his racing thoughts.
He turns to look at Kai, who has his water directed to him. Cole nods and takes it.
He begins to drink the water. “This is a nice view isn’t it?”
Cole wipes his mouth as he hands the bottle back to Kai and nods. “Yeah it really is.”
The two boys sit in silence. Staring ahead at the sunset. Cole then looks over to the brown haired boy, who looks even more gorgeous in the current lighting.
He takes a deep breath. Well, he thinks to himself, Here goes nothing.
“Hey Kai?” He finally asks, trying to get his attention.
Kai continues to look ahead at the sun, replies, “Yeah?”
Cole fiddles with the strings of his black shorts as he looks up to the boy. “I’m going to tell you something. Something I’ve been meaning to tell you for a while now.” He begins.
Kai finally looks over to him, face full of confusion and concern, but lets him continue, so he does. “What you do with this information is entirely up to you, and I wanna let you know that I’ll respect any decision you make.”
“Is everything okay?” Kai asks, worried as he focuses hill full attention onto him.
“Yeah yeah, everything's okay.” He says reassuringly. Kai relaxes. “I just need to get this off my chest and tell you just in case there's like, a chance or something, I don’t know.” He laughs nervously.
Kai furrows his brows in confusion.“A chance of what?”
Cole turns away and closes his eyes as he admits. “A chance that- that you feel the same way.”
He looks back up to the boy, who seems to still not understand.
“I have feelings for you Kai, and I have for a while now. And it’s been driving me fucking insane.”
Kai opens his mouth to speak but closes it right after.
Cole continues, “Like I can’t do anything without thinking of you, and everything reminds me of you. Whenever I’m around you I get so nervous I lose any sense of talking so I end up looking like a fucking idiot when I do.” He exclaims.
Kai laughs softly at this, and Cole’s nerves calm down a little bit, he continues.
“And I just can’t ever stop looking at you. Your face, your eyes, your hair, your lips, just you. You take my fucking breath away. You’re perfect in every way, shape, and form. And everything you do just absolutely amazes me. You are amazing, Kai.” He says, voice laced with absolute adoration.
Kai takes a deep shaky breath, but still doesn’t reply.
“So yeah, I have feelings for you Kai. I was scared to tell you but I needed to get it off my chest because I hate keeping things from you and it was driving me crazy.” He sighs. “And if you don’t feel the same way, that’s okay. We can pretend this never happened and just-”
He’s quickly cut off as the smaller boy grabs his face with both his hands and crashes their lips together.
Cole is caught by surprise but quickly recovers and kisses him back fearlessly, wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him onto his lap. He rests both his hands on his waist once he’s settled comfortably.
They finally break away panting, foreheads touching as they stare intensely into each other's eyes.
Cole breaks the silence.“So is it safe to assume that you feel the same way?”
Kai laughs as he shakes his head fondly. “You’re such a dork.”
“You love it though.” He smirks
“Maybe I do.” He smirks back.
Hands still cupping Cole’s face, Kai pulls his face closer until their lips are inches apart from reconnecting, Cole’s grip on his waist tightens.
“Gross! Get a room!” They hear a squeaky voice yell from afar.
Kai looks up as Cole turns around. Both their mouths hung open and faces as red as Kai’s shorts as they looked up to see all their teammates staring at them in shock. Caught.
They look down at their current position and realize there’s no point in even trying to argue.
After a couple of awkward exchanges, and eating some ice cream. Cole and Kai walk away from the now dark beach with their arms wrapped around each other.
Cole looks over to Kai, whose eyes are twinkling in the starry night sky. Kai looks back and smiles at him tenderly.
Best beach day ever. Cole thought.