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Part 2 of Heart Burn
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2022-11-12
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2022-11-12
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The Way Of A Phoenix

Summary:

Kai just needed one day a year. One day where he could escape it all and just take a minute to wallow in his misery. One day to be alone and not take care of anyone.

Then, after that, he swears he'll be back to normal, back to being the big brother, back to holding it all up inside.

Just give him one damn day...

And then he'll play pretend all they want.

 

(Previously titled "Timeless Children's Games" but changed due to a comment that had an idea I liked much better)

Notes:

So...why did I write this you may ask. Well, it's a secret, so come closer and don't tell anyone.

✨*I have no idea*✨

TIMELINE: So I was thinking it took place around the time that Lord Garmadon was staying on the Bounty with the ninja but after they had rescued Lloyd. I know he technically didn't stay long but I wanted him to stay a little while just for the sake of this. Don't ask why...

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Chapter 1: Back to Ashes

Notes:

Welcome one, welcome all! I hope you like this random shitty train of thought I just had!

WARNINGS: Not very happy, honestly angst is probably the only thing I'm any good at(Spoiler: it kinda gets happier in the next chapter). Lord Garmadon is kind of a jerk but what do you expect? This was rushed so there is that. Uhm...I don't think there's anything else besides maybe some language? Tell me if there's something I forgot to warn about. Now onward, peoples!

Chapter Text

 

 

“Kai, I swear, if you don’t come out right now, I will not talk to you for a week!” Nya shouted, her voice ringing out across the Bounty.

Kai huffed out a breath, rolling his eyes as he leaned back against the wooden planks.

Why could Nya never leave him alone on this day? It was once a year, and just so happened to be the one day that he wanted no one to pay any attention to him. And yet that was the day that brought the most attention to him.

He scoffed, just his luck.

He hated this day and it would be a cold day in hell before he felt any inclination to spend it with anyone.

Currently, he was hiding in the ceiling of the storage space at the bottom of the Bounty. He had found a loose board on the ceiling at the corner and had climbed inside easily enough. There was barely enough room to sit up but he was currently lying down.

He sighed, shoulders slumping in on themselves as his eyes drooped. He wished he could just skip this day. He would have preferred it if everyone had gone out like they did the time before last when he had the ship to himself and was able to beat out his frustration on the training dummies.

But that was the one and only time he had ever been free of Nya’s frantic and ceaseless searching.

If he even stepped out of here, she would tackle him to the ground and sing ‘Hallelujah’ since it would be the first time in eight years that she had seen him on this day, though during the three years prior to that he just judged her to need him too much for him to hide away.

He didn’t understand it either, why she was so desperate to find him.

It always went this way, after all.

He would disappear for the whole day while she tirelessly searched for him, never finding him. At sun up he would come out from his hiding place, make breakfast and act like nothing had ever happened. Then Nya would wake up, tackle him, get a few punches in maybe, he’d be bruised for about a week, and after a while of refusing to talk to him while he tried to coax her out of her fury, she would jump into his arms and cry her heart out.

She would make him promise to never hide again.

He would promise.

She would pretend to believe him.

And he would pretend it wasn’t a lie.

It was always the same dance, just sometimes the tune of the song was a little tweaked.

True, he hated being alone most days. But it couldn’t be helped, today was just...different. He would rather burn in hell for all eternity than spend this day with anyone.

“Well hello there.”

Shock surged through him as he sat up faster than he had ever done in his life, and ended up banging his head on a wooden board above him. Pressing his palm to his aching forehead, he sputtered, staring at the intruder in horrified shock.

No one had ever found him.

Until today.

And of all people…

Him?

He suddenly wished he had a sword to throw himself onto and end it all right then and there.

“Y-you–bu–how–” His undignified sputters were cause enough for the evil warlord to crack a devilish smirk, it was definitely the first time he had ever seen the fire ninja so flustered and confused. Oh how he pitied him...

“Shadows are my realm.” He shrugged easily as if that were explanation enough, closing up the entrance so that the only light among them was what peaked in from between the floorboards.

Kai frowned, swallowing thickly as he turned away.

He had never talked to anyone on this day…at least not for eight years…

He didn’t want to start now.

He didn’t have the strength to become as angry as he would have if this were any other day. All the fight seemed to have just drained out of him...

He sighed, body suddenly becoming too heavy for him to hold up and he leaned back down, sprawling himself out as his arms felt too heavy to put in any other position than the one they had landed in.

Garmadon raised an amused eyebrow as he watched the boy. “Do you want me to leave?”

Amber eyes met briefly with glowing red before they drooped like a wilted flower and fell away in favor of looking into the shadows at a spiderweb in the corner.

He barely had any strength, but he scraped together what he did have left and gave a slow nod.

But Garmadon showed no signs of having any intention of actually leaving and Kai distantly thought how angry he would be that he had even asked, if this were any other day.

But it wasn’t.

It was today.

He swallowed around the lump in his throat, burying his cheek in the thick layer of gathered dust as he tried to turn as far away as possible.

He didn’t want him to look at him.

He didn’t want anyone to look at him.

Not today. Never today.

“Please…” The word tumbled from his slack lips before he even thought to say it.

His brow furrowed. ‘Please’? From the red ninja that hated his guts more than anyone else? He was pleading with him? He hadn’t thought the boy even knew how to use that word, let alone say it to him.

This was a strange day indeed...

Could it be...? Well, he'd give it a guess.

“How old are you?” He asked, keeping his tone light and indifferent, but he was slowly realizing that the boy wasn’t even a legal adult.

His eye twitched as the side of his lips dipped.

Bingo.

“Nineteen?”

Wince.

“Eighteen?”

Slow intake of breath.

“Seventeen?”

Nothing.

There it is.

Seventeen…he wasn’t even a man. He was a boy, plain and simple. Just a boy, a child, an orphan in a way, since his parent's were all but dead to him at least.

He didn’t really care, after all why should he? The boy was an enemy, through and through.

But that girl’s yelling was really pissing him off so he couldn’t leave…besides, he liked annoying the kid.

“So-”

A hand shot up to cover his mouth, eyes narrowing dangerously as the boy beside him held his breath, watching the floorboards above him.

“Shit…where are you, Kai…” A voice sounded a little ways above them.

“Nya! It’s lunch time! You can keep looking after!” Jay’s voice came from somewhere off to the left.

“Did you check the closets?!” She shouted back in response, the patter of her feet across the deck becoming fainter and fainter.

“Yes, for the fiftieth time!”

“All of them?!”

The voices faded with the sound of a slamming door and Kai sighed, hand falling away.

A few moments of silence passed as neither moved nor spoke a word.

“I guess you’re not as close to your sister as I originally thought.” The lord of darkness remarked and Kai didn’t offer a response as he rolled onto his side, facing away from him.

“I would think," He continued, words meant to cut deep enough for a reaction, "that a guy like you, arrogant, hot-headed, egotistical, and conceited–”

Kai raised an eyebrow as he looked back at him over his shoulder. He could practically hear the “are you done?” without the boy opening his mouth and he almost smiled at the sight.

“--Would jump at the chance to be fawned over on a day like this. It’s the only day of the year that you’re the main priority, isn’t it?” He tilted his head.

Kai’s brow furrowed, mulling that over as he seemed to be doing with everything else this day in particular.

But he still said nothing.

Garamdon’s eye twitched in annoyance. The boy was acting so…numb. Numb to it all and it seemed so wrong for someone as passionate and fiery and…strong as this kid.

Yeah, okay. He admitted it. He liked the kid, a little. But so what? The boy was respectable, while also maintaining his stupidity, but he was still…a good kid.

So what was wrong with him? He looked like he had…given up. Like he was drowning but had stopped struggling against the current.

The master of fire, drowning? How ironically sad.

“Don’t pity me.” A small and soft voice rasped and Garmadon straightened up, he didn’t remember the kid being able to read minds.

“I won’t.” He assured in as sincere a voice as he could manage, but the scoff from the boy made it clear what he thought of the lame attempt at comfort as he turned away again.

Silence fell again as the Lord of Darkness examined the state of the kid. He couldn’t see his face, but based on the earlier expression in his eyes, it was almost as if…the fire had gone out.

He felt a pull at his nearly non-existent heart. Even he could tell what the fire meant to the boy. If he had lost it…well…that would be the equivalent of losing purpose.

It was almost as if there was a dark cloud of pain over the boy’s head, and he was finally paying it its due notice.

“Stop looking at me like that.” The boy curled in on himself, arms securing his legs to his chest.

“Like what?” He prompted, leaning back on an outstretched arm. He was just bored, it wasn't like he was actually interested.

“Like there’s something wrong with me.” He mumbled into his knee, “I know. I know I need fixing but they don’t make the parts for this piece of crap anymore.” His arms tightened around his legs. “I’ll be okay by tomorrow…”

Garmadon frowned. What? Tomorrow? He was pretty sure that wasn’t possible. Whatever was wrong, it was deep-rooted, festering, and eating away at him. He knew.

“No you won’t.”

Kai didn’t answer, biting down on the inside of his cheek as he tightly shut his eyes.

“Boy…” He started, eyes never leaving him. “Why won’t you see your sister?”

He could see the tension ever rising in the boy, and he almost thought he wouldn’t answer when an shame-filled voice spoke up. “Pity.” He spit, and the humiliation clearly felt in that statement was enough for him to understand. She looked at him in pity, and for someone as prideful as him, that must hurt more than a knife.

“Tomorrow she’ll remember her own problems.”

So that was it then. Why tomorrow he would go back out there. But it didn’t explain why he would be 'okay' by tomorrow.

“And you?” The kid…wasn’t actually that stupid, he begrudgingly admitted to himself. He understood people very well. He would know what he meant.

“I’ll remember her problems too.” He uttered softly. “And everyone else’s.” He added as he hunched in on himself further. “Just give me one day…one day to collect the pieces and I’ll be good as new.”

Good as new? He scoffed. “Then have you always been broken?” The words slipped out before he could filter them. He would have felt regret for having spoken so carelessly, had it not been for the fact that he was still the lord of darkness.

Surprisingly enough, he could hear the smile in the child’s voice when he spoke again. “Yeah…” He seemed genuinely amused by the fact that he understood. Appreciative even.

“Not even gonna try to fight me today, kid?”

He heard a light huff of breath that he judged to be a slight bit of laughter, humorless though it might have been.

"Why today?" He found himself asking after a moment. It wasn't as if he cared, but curiosity was nagging at him, that was all.

There was no answer except the tightening of his grip on his arms and waist.

"Was it..." He tried to speak as calmly and soothingly as possible. But the fact that it was this boy in particular made that far more difficult. "Was it the day they left?"

Then the temperature seemed to drop again as silence fell and dark chilling eyes fell on his and he wondered if his own eyes had ever looked so…dead. It was an impressive feat, especially for someone so young.

‘Leave.’ The eyes demanded, pleading, begging. And he thought back to the earlier statement.

“Just give me one day to collect the pieces…”  

So...then maybe this was the one day of the year where he would allow himself to drown…the one day he would let himself be weak…the one day where he could fester in his problems instead of everyone else’s. Come to think of it, the kid certainly seemed pretty caught up in helping others and he couldn’t remember ever seeing the kid do something for himself.

So this was the one day of the year that he would gift to himself?

…How cruelly sad.

He didn’t know why, but sympathy tugged at his charcoal heart, and it took a lot to make him feel such a thing, so he mentally congratulated the boy as he left him to spend this ‘special’ day alone, the day which was the one and only thing that would keep him sane.

Sure he'd have to listen to more yelling from the boy's annoying little sister all day, but...he couldn't bring himself to invade his privacy and...disrupt the healing process any further. So he would leave him, and he wouldn't tell his sister where he had found him.

Just call it a birthday present, nothing more.

 

 

 

Chapter 2: Timeless Children's Games

Summary:

Garmadon is faced with...a shocking situation.

Notes:

Hellooo again beautiful people! Now Kai is kind of a mom/father/older brother in this one and I just wanted to write something cute and sweet for once(but of course it also has to have a little sprinkled aftertaste of bitterness, courtesy of my angsty mind)

WARNINGS: Not *super* angsty, it's really just implied. Not dealing with one's problems and instead shoving them down for literally a full year. People are very dependent on Kai....These aren't really warnings anymore at this point. Idk honestly. Oh, some language I guess. I think that's it!

(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)

Chapter Text

 

 

The next day he found himself faced with a…shocking sight, if he were being perfectly honest.

“Hey, hand me the butter!” Kai’s voice shouted across the room.

“Butter, incoming!” Jay snatched it off the counter and threw it towards Kai who caught it with ease, not even looking and Jay cheered in response.

“When will it be ready?” Cole demanded.

“Soon, now get the hell out and away from the food. I don’t want your poor cooking skills rubbing off on me.” Kai shooed him away and Cole muttered unintelligible curses as he slunk away.

“I can help, if you would like.” Zane offered from his place to the side.

“No thanks Zane! Stay right there, just like Cole’s bad luck, you’re good luck when it comes to cooking!”

“I fail to see how that makes any sense.”

“It’s not supposed to make sense.”

The lord of evil blinked in surprised confusion. What the hell was happening? Just yesterday, not even twenty four hours ago, this kid was drowning in the depths of despair, barely able to form a whole sentence and seemingly without the strength to move very much at all. Now he was bright and the picture of contentment as his voice was light and joyful. He turned and the look in his eyes was one of strength and purpose. The fire was back, brighter than he had seen it in a while.

Maybe he meant it very literally that he was picking up the pieces, having lost them throughout the days of the year following the day he was born, but then putting himself back together during that same day which was apparently dedicated to preparing for yet another year spent the same way. He repressed all his sufferings to the deepest part of his soul, only to slowly resurface in one year's time.

What an excruciating cycle.

Gone were any self-caring ideas to be replaced once again by ones of taking care of everyone else.

What the fucking hell was this kid?

“Hey, Garmadon, pull your weight! I need the loaf in the pantry, give it to Jay and then get me the cheese from the fridge.”

And he seemed to be in a better mood than he had ever witnessed. Maybe it dwindled over time, like the battery of a car.

He did as was told, if only because he was still shocked by the sudden change and didn’t know what else to do.

“AHH! Kai! It’s burning!”

“It’s a toaster, Jay, how did you–never mind! Move!” Then he took complete charge if he wasn’t already. Juggling it all, the eggs, the toast, the bacon, pancakes and waffles all the while he stared.

“He went to the store this morning.” Zane explained as he watched the scene with him. “He always does this after–”

“Jay, don’t touch that! It’s hot and you’ll get burned.”

“But I just want a taste!”

“Wait a few minutes, you won’t starve before then.”

“Meanie Kai!”

“Yeah, yeah. Go ask what everyone wants to drink and then fill up their cups.”

Jay stuck his tongue out and Kai responded in kind.

“Ow!”

“Jay, what did I just say?!”

Kai was more like a mom than anything at the moment, but he was…he was like the big brother, despite him not being the oldest.

“Hey Kai, where’s my hoodie?” There’s Lloyd, he smiled.

“Check behind the bathroom door, you hung it up on the side of it, could have fallen off.” Kai answered easily.

“Thanks!”

“You got it.”

“Kai, is the coffee ready?” Cole peaked in.

“It’s brewing, be ready in two. Don’t touch the pancakes.”

“Ugh, fine!”

“Kai, it wasn’t there!”

“Then Jay probably took it to clean up the juice he spilled in the hallway.”

“Jay!” He ran away.

“My special tea leaves are missing.” Here comes Wu.

“Cole went to buy some more a few days ago when he noticed you were running low, he probably put them on the top shelf again.”

“Thank you.”

“Yup!”

“What the heck, Jay?!”

“I’ll buy you a new one, I swear!”

“Kai!” Lloyd’s call sounded eerily similar to the way a child would call for their mom in an argument with their sibling.

“Jay, try to clean it first. Then if you can’t clean it, buy him a new one. Don’t just say you’ll buy him one to get out of cleaning it.”

“Aw come on…” He groaned and Lloyd humphed.

“Coffee’s ready!”

“Whoohoo!”

“Not for you, Lloyd, there’s juice in the fridge.”

“Aw, please Kai?”

“Nope, not until you are officially dying inside.” Cole clapped a hand onto his shoulder in sympathy.

“Hey I’m dying inside!”

“No, you’re not, Jay.” Cole countered. “And you can’t drink it because you’ll make us die all the more.”

“Shut up, Cole…”

“After you.”

“Alright, are the cups at the table?” Kai brought them back to the present as he flipped the pancake.

“Ah–I’m on it!” Jay scurried away.

“Cole, you set the table?”

“Done!”

“Forks and knives this time?”

“...Just a sec–”

“Lloyd, is Nya awake yet?”

“Think so! I’ll go get her!”

“Great, thanks, and tell her coffee’s ready.”

“Got it!”

“Kai, have you seen my cane?”

“Yeah, it’s in the training room. Someone was using it to fight a dummy.”

“Who?”

“Sorry, Sensei, can’t tell. Code of honor and all that.”

“Hmm…”

“Knives are set!”

“No, wait Cole, that’s–!”

“OW!”

“Why do you people keep touching hot metals?” Kai groaned. “Cool your hand off in water!”

“Okay–ow, ow,ow…”

Crash, shatter, groan.

“... Jay, what did you do?”

“Uhh–Kai I broke a glass and now there’s a shard in my toe!”

“Don’t move, just hold still, okay? You don’t want another one to get lodged–”

“OWWW”

“Jay, for fuck’s sake–Damn it.” Kai turned the heat off and a moment later walked in with a limping Jay. “Cole, please sweep up the glass! Jay sit up on the counter.”

“Where’s the broom?”

“Where it always is!”

“...Where’s that?”

“In the closet in the hallway, do you never sweep?”

“It’s not my job!”

He sighed. “Okay Jay, lift up your foot.”

“Is it gonna hurt?”

“Not more than it would if you kept walking around with it stuck in there.”

“...So it’s gonna hurt?”

He looked at him with a raised eyebrow before swiftly tugging out the shard, earning a yelp from the blue nin.

He tossed it into the trashcan and grabbed a band-aid from the miscellaneous drawer along with some neosporin and smeared it over the small cut before placing the band-aid on the injured toe.

“Better?”

“Yeah, thanks Kai.”

“No problem. See if Cole’s done and then keep going with the cups and stop carrying so many at one time just so you have to take less trips.”

“Haha…yeah okay.”

Finally, the table was set, food placed all around along with drinks and everyone sat down except Nya who was still missing.

“Lloyd, where’s Nya?”

“She said she wasn’t hungry.”

He sighed. “Alright. Start without us, just don’t eat it all.”

“Kay!”

And he left the table.

Curiosity got the best of him and he soon found himself following after the fire elemental and watched and listened from the shadows as he entered her room.

“Morning.” He spoke softly.

“Go away, Kai.”

“Come on, I made coffee. There’s pancakes and waffles too.” He sat down on her bed and pushed her shoulder gently as she turned to glare up at him.

"Stop it." She hissed as his hand never fell away.

“Stop pretending nothing happened, Kai. You do this every year!” She shoved him away from her, leapt to her feet and began to pace around the room, making wild gestures as the heat of her tone rose to levels he didn’t think her capable of.

“I looked for you all day! Where even were you? Did you leave the whole fucking ship? Did you think about leaving for good, huh?!” She snapped out and even he had to cringe at that, they had been abandoned after all, but Kai didn’t even react.

“You keep–keep playing pretend like–like we’re kids! We’re not! Not anymore!”

She screamed in frustration as she held her head tightly and almost ripped out her hair.

“But–But we are kids!” She contradicted. “We’re too old to play pretend but you’re too young to carry the whole world around on your shoulders! But you keep doing it! Let me help you, Kai!”

She looked at him as he waited patiently and that somehow made her all the angrier. “Ugh! Damn it, Kai! Damn you, and this crap you always pull! What is wrong with you?! Why can’t you just–just let me do something for you one damn time?! You’ve done too fucking much and you keep going, stop it! You never let anyone in, do you?!" She demanded. "You just have to take it alone, even if it hurts everyone else! Even if it makes them feel useless when they look at you! Even if-if they don't notice how much it hurts you, you still..."

She swallowed thickly before bursting out again. "Why?! Why can't you just...just let me try? Or do you not believe in me enough to even grant me that?!"

Her shoulders shook violently as she looked at him in pure terrified anger. "Stop it. Stop it or I’ll–I’ll never talk to you again! I’ll never–never h-hug you, n-never…never–”

She burst into tears. “Kai!” She jumped at him and for a second he thought she was going to hit her brother when instead she collapsed into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

Kai didn’t seem phased at all, even going so far as to smile a little as he gently caressed her head, maneuvering his fingers through her hair soothingly as his other hand stroked her back in a soft ghost of a touch that she always said she liked.

“It’s okay, Nya…I’m right here…” He whispered and she looked up at him through glistening eyes.

“You–you wouldn’t have…I know you wouldn’t have, I’m sorry, I–”

“Hey, it’s okay…” He pulled her into another hug.

“You just scared me…” She whimpered and he sighed.

“I know…I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

“You promise?” She gripped him tighter.

He inhaled deeply. “Yeah…yeah, I promise.”

‘We’re not too old just yet…’



Notes:

And there you have it. Sorry if it was a little anti-climactic or something...I didn't really know what to do with it. Hope you liked it though, have a good one!

If you have any requests for me to write something, I'll definitely hear it and consider it, just don't make it romantic. I can't do romantic, especially when it comes to Kai. But anything else and I'd love to hear it!

Notes:

Well...that was fun! I have to be honest, I kinda hate this thing, but I hope you liked it. I don't have much else to say so see ya, love ya, buh bye!!

Series this work belongs to: