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Man, that was embarrassing.
Kai rubbed at the back of his neck as he walked away from the noodle cart. At Least she wasn’t mad at him. That would have made him feel worse.
Honestly? He doesn’t even really know why he decided asking her out was a good idea. It felt right in his head, he and Skylor have had this off and on romantic tension between them for years now. So he figured, hey, why not give it a shot, right? Yeah… probably not.
He can’t say her response was all that surprising, he had been neglecting to keep in consistent contact with her since they met. They were both busy all the time, so even any thought of just hanging out constantly escaped his mind. Of course he felt bad about it.
Aughh, stupid.
There may not be hard feelings between them, but that didn’t stop him from berating himself. He needed something else to distract him, something he knew would make him feel better.
Maybe he can help Cole with the radio? That could be a good distraction. He didn’t know much about, er, radio frequencies, but he can give some moral support. And anytime spent with Cole is a good time.
However, when he turned to look where he had been standing a few moments ago, he was gone. Though the kid, Nelson, was still there fiddling with the thing. Kai looked around, confused when not able to see him, before approaching Nelson.
“Hey, kid.”
Nelson looked at him and smiled. “Oh, hi!” He looked back down. “Don’t worry, I’m almost done with this, so.”
“Hm, wasn’t Cole helping you with that?” Kai crossed his arms. He wasn’t sure how smart it was to leave Nelson to do this by himself.
“Yeah, he said his head was hurting pretty bad, though. Said he just needed to rest for a few minutes. I don’t mind all that much.”
Kai quirked an eyebrow, “Well, where is he?”
Nelson looked back up and around before pointing to a more secluded and darker part of the warehouse. “I told him if he needed somewhere quieter to rest, over there would be the best place. S’where we keep all the empty crates.”
Kai nodded a thanks and began walking over to his friend. If Cole was here, that must mean his head injury is bothering him.
When they’d got here, he’d made sure first aid was done immediately on his friend. Cole might have been conscious and walking relatively straight on his own, but the blood dripping through his raven hair still scared him. He was acting tough, he’s Cole afterall, but you could see it still hurt. Kai didn’t like seeing that pain in his mismatched brown eyes.
The pressure in Kai’s head was painful, he felt like he was about to explode. He could just barely hear the distant marching of crystal soldiers and yelling over the roaring in his ears.
He grunted, opening his eyes and trying to move. His arms hurt, and his legs felt numb and tingly. He panicked slightly, trying to get his legs to wake up.
“Wha…?” He pulled down his hood. “Where am I?”
He took a moment to process how he got here. He and Cole were speeding through the streets, before suddenly his vehicle was being picked up and thrown upside down onto Cole’s.
And then they… they crashed.
His vehicle was thrown onto Cole’s and they crashed.
Kai shook his head, realizing he was worrying at the inside of his cheek. Gross.
While walking over, he grabbed a roll of gauze. Just in case.
The corner of the warehouse Cole had decided to hide in was… not well loved. There were broken rusted bikes, old tools, empty crates. Old stacks of newspaper covered in dust, never to be delivered to someone willing to look at the morning news, or have their crosswords solved as someone takes a sip of fresh coffee.
But, there was a peace to it. Like time was standing still. There was no rush.
It was quiet. Not silent, you could still hear voices echoing throughout the place no matter where you stood, but they were small. It was also dark, say for the small amount of illumination the area got from a dim lantern.
Which happened to have the man Kai was looking for sitting right next to it.
Cole was sitting on a crater leaned forward, fingers laced together on his knees and head resting on his hands. His forehead had gauze wrapped around it. Kai couldn’t see his face, it was covered in lovely thick black hair, but he wanted to imagine Cole had his eyes closed in idle, peaceful thoughts.
He probably wasn’t, but imagining anything Cole might realistically be fretting about made Kai’s chest hurt.
“You gonna eat the rest of that?” Kai made his presence known, noting the half eaten bowl of noodles sitting next to the raven.
Cole didn’t flinch or tense up at the sound of Kai’s voice, which Kai cringed at as he said that louder than he meant to. He just slowly sat up and looked at Kai, eyebrows pinched together, a small smile on his face.
“Not that hungry.” Cole replied quietly. He looked up at Kai as he approached him, who noticed how the other looked a little pale. His stomach must be hurting.
Kai gave him a small teasing nudge and chuckled. “That’s a first.”
Cole rolled his eyes and shoved him away lightly. “Jerk.” he huffed, no actual venom said behind the word.
Staring at the way the black ninja smiled came easy to Kai. He enjoyed noting the way his lips quirked to the side, the smile never being 100% straight, but perfect all the same. His eyes always twinkled in this breathtaking way when Cole smiled at him. (Only at him, he noticed. It was a light saved specially for Kai.) Usually his beautifully thick eyebrows were light and carefree, which made Kai’s stomach twist in a not so pleasant way seeing that right now they were pinched together, looking strained.
Kai unconsciously felt himself step closer and reach out to the gauze around the other’s head. Lightly, his fingers trailed over the bandage, over where the wound was hiding in thick hair.
Noticing Cole wince, Kai mumbled an apology and instead brought his hand through blood crusted hair. He wished so bad that running fingers along the strands of hair would clear the blood away.
Kai tried so hard not to stare at the busted lip Cole wore. Something about it made his own lips tremble. He pressed them into a straight line. None of that, now.
Kai barely noticed he was basically cradling Cole’s face in his hand. Not that either of them minded. The closeness was familiar.
Calloused hands holding his own, thick arms wrapped around him, hushed kind words and tears running down both cheeks. Comforting. Safe.
Red’s other hand went back up to the gauze. “Can I reapply your gauze?”
An eyebrow was raised at him. “I just got it applied only like, an hour ago.” The noirette let out a laugh when Kai still ended up tugging at the bandage. “Besides, I already told you it’s just a small head injury.”
Kai gave his own smile, albeit a little strained. “Considering your head is bothering you, I am going to have to disagree with that. Besides, it won’t hurt to check.”
Cole’s smile turned into a smirk. “Starting to think you’re using this as an excuse to touch my face.”
The only response he got to that was Kai saying “Scoff!” out loud and another small tug at the gauze.
But Kai felt sick. His face felt warm and he was sweating. He didn’t notice how his hand was shaking. He closed his eyes, the longer he looked at Cole’s injured face the more anxious he felt.
Kai looked up and his breath caught in his throat. There he saw Cole, upside down(?) in his vehicle. The brunette would have thought he looked peaceful under any other circumstance.
Now all he could think of for the first few seconds he stared at the other was “Oh no. No no no no no. Not again, please, not again.”
He called out, voice feeling rough. “Cole? Cole!”
Kai thought he would die of relief when he heard Cole grunt.
“Cole, can you hear me?”
He’s alive, but unconscious. Likely injured. He had to get them out of there before they were found. Kai pressed a button to open the hatch to his vehicle and unbuckled his seatbelt, yelling when he fell right out and landed on the ground with an “Ouch.”
Recovering quickly (though a little light-headed from the blood rush), Kai set to work on hauling debris off Cole’s vehicle. Then he tried pulling the hatch open, which was not working.
“Augh! Stupid-!” He yelled, kicking the vehicle.
“You six go that way! The rest of you, that way! Search the streets!” A disturbingly familiar voice rang out in the distance.
Kai ducked lower behind the car, murmuring to himself. “I know that voice.”
“Find the ninja! The Crystal King commands it!”
Feeling himself start to panic a bit more, Kai threw himself back at Cole’s vehicle. “Come on.” He tugged at the hatch. “Come on! Wake up, Cole.”
Bracing himself, he tugged the hatch up with as much strength as he could muster, his arms shaking and the vehicles’ lock working against him. He needed to get them out of here, now.
Momentarily catching himself by surprise, he actually began to pry the thing open. Thank the Master.
“Ugh, buddy, not a good time for a beauty nap!” He grunted, finally getting the hatch open enough for him to reach Cole.
Hauling himself over the edge of the vehicle, he reached over, unbuckled his seatbelt, and slid the other’s hood off, assessing the damage over his friend. From what he could see of his body, he didn’t have any visible injuries. Though, he was worried when he saw Cole’s busted lip and blood dripping down his face from somewhere his hair was covering.
Kai worried even more when as he was picking him up, Cole looked at him with lidded eyes, and said “Wha- What happened. Did we.. Did we win?” He sounded confused. That was definitely not a good sign.
As Kai began pulling Cole out of his vehicle, he must have really overestimated both how strong he was and how much help Cole would be helping him get out, because before he knew it they both fell to the ground with a groan.
“Kai, Hey.” he heard someone whisper.
Kai blinked. Being brought back to the present. Cole was in front of him, one hand holding the arm of the hand that was still cradling his face, and his other hand holding onto Kai’s trembling one. He… He was trembling?
Ugh, could this day get any more embarrassing?
“Hey, look at me.” He heard Cole say softly.
Kai complied, and any tension he had went away as he looked down at soft, kind, beautiful, reassuring eyes. He felt a thumb rubbing back and forth on his arm. His lips were pressed into a thin line.
“We’re alone.” Cole smiled, leaning into Kai’s hand. “Talk to me.”
The dam bursts.
Kai doesn’t know when or why he started doing this, leaning on Cole for support. He knew he would never let anyone else in and look at him like this. Not even Nya or Lloyd. FSM knows, not Nya or Lloyd. He was their big brother. He was supposed to be the strong supportive one. Their rock. Took him a long time to realize how much he needed a rock of his own.
“The crash,” Kai started, surprised at how weak his voice came out, “When I woke up and saw you not moving, I thought you.. Died. Like I’d lost you, like when.. with the-”
He shook his head, letting out a shaky sigh, trying to ignore the stray tears and how personal ‘I lost you’ sounded. He tried to ignore even harder the way Cole stared at him with so much care, glancing every now and then on Kai’s quivering lips.
He felt himself get pulled closer.
“It reminded you of the fall?”
Kai closed his eyes. “I just… didn’t want to go through that again.”
Cole nodded, biting his own lip in thought. Which definitely did not make Kai’s stomach flip.
The noirette scooted forward, letting go of Kai in favor of wrapping his arms around the other and pulling him in so that his head rested on red’s chest.
Kai wrapped his own arms around Cole’s shoulders and buried himself in the other’s hair.
“I’m not going anywhere, don’t worry.” He heard the other murmur, rubbing soothing circles on his back.
Kai sighed. “Can’t get rid of ya that easily, huh?”
He felt the other’s shoulder’s shake in silent laughter, felt himself get held onto tighter. “Nope.”
Brunette’s stomach turned pleasantly, feeling warm.
Kai wasn’t unaware of the tension between them. It was the same tension Kai would sometimes feel for Skylor. But with Cole it felt easier, more consistent. Warmer.
He had a feeling Cole felt the same. But he also knew they were both scared. Not of rejection, though the thought of that made Kai’s heart ache as well. No, this fear was harder to explain.
Not only was this feeling a part of Kai that he was never quite ready to explore, but he was also scared that if they were to speak their feelings out loud, they would disappear as if they’d never existed.
The yearning for intimacy hurt, but so did the thought of losing the familiarity of want. Like someone becoming rich, getting everything he wanted, but no longer having anything else to want other than the ability to fantasize again.
So, they stayed like this. Feelings left unspoken, neither willing to speak their feelings into nonexistence.
It was dumb and it was silly. Two young adult men scared to initiate a relationship, but willing to risk their lives fighting evil for their world. Kai could laugh bitterly at the thought.
But he didn’t. Instead, he ran his fingers through perfect black hair, content at having this little space in the corner of a warehouse frozen to time, momentarily forgetting how scary everything outside of this little bubble is.
Sooner or later they’d have to get up, go back outside, and fight all the horrors that awaited them out of this moment.
Right now, however, it was just them and that unspoken feeling keeping them warm and safe.