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The door to the bathroom flies open, hazy steam pours out of the door frame and heat wafts in the room temperature hallway. Kai emerges from the steamy room with a red towel around his waist, using a smaller cloth to ruffle his damp hair. He sighs while the small cloth lays along his sore shoulders. A relaxing shower is just what he needed after a long, long day of training.
“About time!” Jay says, he shakes a blue towel and his little basket of toiletries around with a huff, “you better have not taken up all the hot water!”
“Of course not,” Kai absolutely lied with a wave of his hand, side stepping out of Jay’s way, “I would never,”
Jay narrows his eyes as he slowly shuts the door, the steam within the room envelops his head. Not too long after the door shuts, the red ninja hears shuffling inside the room, the curtain pulling back, then finally the familiar squeak of the knob turning and the shower head spraying. Kai snickers to himself as he walks down the hall to his room, he hears Jay scream at the definitely cold water.
The clean sheets are still warm as Kai finishes making his bed, he throws the comforter over the bare mattress, the cloth floats down delicately. Now that that was done, as well as his signature ten-to-fifteen step skincare routine completed, it was time to relax . He spread out on his back, the mattress letting his body sink into it. His muscles, once sore and tight, relax and loosen up, his eyes droop and become heavy, the sounds within the occupied monastery drift away, leaving only the sweet lullaby of the wind blowing through his open window and little meows from across the room.
Ah yes sweet bliss…
Wait what.
Kai’s brows bristle in confusion, thoughts drowning within the sleepy and muddled mind of his. Parts of him want to ignore the noise, it was probably just his imagination, and he just laid down dammit. His mind is at a slow, lazy warfare, though he refuses to get up and investigate, returning on the teeter of falling asleep.
Then a loud, definitely not imagined and very loud clatter gets him up, he groans irritably. He turns his head to the desk by the window, where he spots a fallen cup that once held his writing utensils, items now sprawled across the floorboards. Nothing abnormal, really, and, in Kai’s opinion, it is nothing worth getting up to clean at the moment. That was for later Kai, not relax-time Kai. The ninja re-adjusts his lounge position, he hopes he could get at least a few hours of shut eye before–
It all happens in a blink, a flash of orange dashes across the floor, 't hump thump thump' and the blur bolts into the shadows of his unorganized closet.
Kai, now very confused, still lays on his bed, frozen. As slow as he can, he rises from his bed– that he is supposed to be relaxing on, he thinks– and creeps towards his closet. Without looking away from where he saw the blur blink away within the piled depths, Kai picks up a practice staff from the floor, maybe he’ll need it. Not that he’s scared – it's for just in case.
He hears a rustle within the pile of sweaters he had yet to hang up, then a growl. He prods the edge of the pile with the staff's end –and he definitely was not sweating at the back of the neck while doing so– the creature hissed.
As quick as lightning, Kai yanks the top sweater from the pile away. Immediately a fluff-ball of orange fur puffs its fur up and yowls at Kai as he screams in surprise. The cat scrambles out of his closet and races around the room, it jumps on his chair and then to his freshly made bed and barrels into the empty laundry basket.
Not wanting to get caught into the tornado of chaos, Kai’s eyes try to keep up with the speed of the cat without moving from the spot he is glued to. He watches as his bed sheets get thrown off, pillows get torn, writing utensils are flung everywhere, framed pictures and posters are knocked off his walls and clatter onto the floor. Until finally the cat realizes the open window is its only escape, the feline bounds out, but not before taking out half of Kai’s curtain rod.
Moments pass in silence, then the rest of the curtain rod gives out and falls on the floor. Dumbfounded, Kai blinks, scanning at the now very messy room of his, “...What just happened?”
So much for a relaxing afternoon.
~~~~~
“Get outta here, cat!!”
The intruder decided to make himself comfortable in the one place Kai isn’t able to reach. All the way up in the beams of his ceiling, an orange feline with mismatched eyes bats the end of the broomstick that is supposed to be attacking him, plays with it like a toy. Kai, wielding the broom, seethes.
Apparently, the cat had shown up sometime when Kai had left for a quick grocery run. When he came back, he found his room in peril. Sock drawer wide open and rummaged through, hamper fallen over and an orange furry beast rolling around in the spilled items. That was probably an hour ago.
Since then, Kai had been chasing the cat around the room up until the beast found his current spot way up above where Kai –though he regetably admits– because of his height, he can’t reach. Kai tried to throw some of his socks at the cat, but when that didn’t work he brought out the broom. So much for that plan.
“Come on you mangy cat!” Kai gave one last swing of the broomstick before his arms gave out.
“ Mow ” Oh, that cat was mocking him for sure .
“Uh, Kai?”
He jumps and whirls around to see Cole and Jay standing in his doorway, both with very questioning faces. Kai attempts to hide the broom behind his back, the brush end sticks out above his head. Smooth, Kai. Smooth. Just act natural.
“Whatcha’ doin’ with the broom?” Jay inquires.
“Sweeping. Obviously,” Kai shrugs.
“Sweeping the ceiling?” Cole grins. Kai feels his face get warm.
“No!” a sock falls from the rafters and lands on Kai’s head. He glares up above, grumbling, “I’m just getting rid of a pest .”
The cat above ‘mrowed’ , stretching its back and yawning. Jay and Cole looked up and both ‘awwed’ instantaneously, practically melting at the sight. Which is definitely a part of the cat’s plan to continuously mock Kai.
“Kai! You didn’t tell us you had a kitty around!” Jay fawns over the little devil. Yeah, fawns .
“I didn’t know you were a cat person, but it kinda makes sense,” Cole studies Kai.
“I don’t! And I’m not! It just keeps breaking in here all the time!” Kai swings the broom at the cat, who doesn’t budge, “The little runt keeps knocking my shit over and hiding my socks!”
“Ha! Classic cat activities,” Jay casually says as if the action was not strange, “we had this scrap cat when I was a kid. He used to chase red beetles –only red ones– and pile them on our doorstep.”
Kai made a face at the oddly specific memory, “ Why ?”
Jay just shrugs, “cat activities.”
Meanwhile, Cole placed Kai’s desk chair under the beam the cat lounges on. He steps on it, and since he is tall enough to actually reach the beam on the stool, slowly rises to be at eye level of the cat. The feline, curious, watches as the larger man approaches. Cole offers his hand for judgment.
“Careful, man. It’ll claw you,” Kai warns. He gestures to the claw scratches and bites on his hands, “I’m one of its victims,”
The cat butts his head against Cole’s knuckle. Kai’s jaw drops.
“Relax Kai,” Cole steps down from the chair, the orange fur ball snug in his arms. He actually coos , “He’s a sweetheart,”
The little beast has the nerve to purr when Cole scratches under the cat’s chin in his arms. Jay lights up, shuffling closer to get a pet in himself. Kai, however, rolls his eyes at the act the little devil is obviously putting on. He wouldn’t forget the missing pairs of socks and hair ties he still has yet to find.
“Oh, come on,” Cole rolls his own hazel eyes with a smile, “You just need to get to know the little guy. Here, hold him,”
“Wha- I don’t want to-” then there’s a warm, fuzzy cat plopped in his arms. The cat wriggles in his arms for a moment, which Kai is not prepared to handle. Kai ends up holding the cat under the front legs, keeping a good eye clawing distance away from his face. The cat still purrs even when he’s being held in such a strange way. Kai looks at the duo.
“See he likes you!” Jay beams.
“He’s not a bomb, Kai,” Cole titters, “the purring is a good sound,”
“I know that!” Kai grits, giving the cat a suspicious squint, “...now what?”
“I don’t know,” Cole shrugs, the taller man picks up the broomstick and takes it with him as he makes his way to the door.
Jay follows behind Cole, but not before snapping a quick picture of the scene in front of him, most likely is about to post it everywhere, “we just came here for the broom,”
“What- guys!” Kai protests, but then the door closes.
The cat wiggles in his hands again. Kai moves to hold the cat in the same way Cole held him so he didn’t drop him, albeit awkwardly. Now cradled like a baby, the cat’s purring gets louder, and with what little tail he has whips against Kai’s hip. As he holds him, he notices the cat is pretty warm, and really soft. Maybe Kai is starting to understand why people like cats… Maybe . The cat stretches his front feet, the little pink padded toes extend and flutter on Kai’s nose. Admittedly, the little tickles make him smile. This cat is kinda cute.
Kai slowly moves his hand to let the cat sniff it like Cole had done, and when there was no protest, he pets the head of the cat gently. The cat purrs sweetly, Kai fights the ‘awe’ of his own.
“Okay… maybe we got off on the wrong foot, cat.” Kai scratches the underside of the cat’s chin, “you’re not so bad after all– OW!”
The cat bites his finger and scampers out of his grasp. Kai curses at the feline with a throbbing finger as it darts out the window.
~~~~~
Falling asleep on the couch and waking up in the same place was expected. I mean, he was the one that fell asleep there in the first place afterall. Last night’s movie night was a long time overdue and in the end Kai couldn’t even drag himself to bed when he almost fell asleep for the third time, so he just decided to conk out where he was.
However, he was not expecting to open his brown eyes and meet a pair of mismatched ones looking right back at him. Very, very close to his face. The cat, who was somehow dubbed Corn of all names (“ he looks just like a piece of corn! ”, “ No he fucking does not look like fucking corn, Jay ”), had obviously made himself at home ‘loafing’ on Kai’s chest. Hm, so that’s why he felt like he was suffocating a little. At least the little guy was warm.
“Oh my First Master . Take a picture, take a picture!” A voice from Kai’s right (tried to) whisper.
Delirious and still half asleep, Kai blinked and didn’t react when a camera shutter clicked. He was weirdly tired this morning, apparently, and the little weight on his chest is comforting. And since Corn, for once, isn't being an utter nuisance, leaves the cat be. Kai reaches a hand to scratch the cat behind the ears, he gets a loud purr in return,feeling the rumble across his chest. He chuckles lightly with half lidded eyes as the cat’s head leans further into his palm.
Then he hears multiple giggles around him and his brain finally decides to snap back to reality. At the feeling of eyes watching him, Kai looks directly above to find the satisfied look of someone who just knew he was right all along about a certain ‘I don’t like cats’ situation.
“Comfy?” Cole’s face is upside down from Kai’s point of view, “I thought you hated pests,"
Kai can practically taste the smugness with his regular woodsy, earth-like scent. Is he even trying to hide it??
“Shut up,” Kai scoffs, but he couldn’t quite hide the way his lips twitch as he gets a smile out of the big guy. “But maybe all pests aren’t so bad.”
“Maybe?”
“ Possibly ,”
“ Please tell me you’re keeping Corn now,” Lloyd appears over the back edge of the couch, where he came from, Kai had no idea. Lloyd has those pleading puppy dog eyes as he whines. He has been begging Kai to let Corn stay ever since he saw the picture of the cat Jay sent to the entire world ever since, “I think I’d die without him,”
Kai was pretty sure one night Lloyd had snuck into Kai’s bedroom to see the cat that broke in and snuggled next to his pillow. All Kai could remember was being barely awake as the familiar red glowing eyes of his little demon brother stood in his doorway. (They had all found out the cat liked Kai the most for some reason, and he would only enter the entire temple through Kai’s window. And only his window. He wouldn’t even use the front doors or yard that connected to the back porch.) Lloyd is, to say the least, obsessed with Corn.
“Then why don’t you take care of him?” Kai asks again . That’s the other thing, everyone loves this cat sooo much, but every time he asks why don’t they take care of it, he’d always get: ‘I’ve got too much on my plate right now,’ or Lloyd’s frequent response that makes him want to maybe drop kick the kid down the Ten Thousand Steps–
“I’m the Green Ninja, dude.”
And listen, he knows they just didn’t want to have to be the one to actually take care of the animal, like buying it food every few weeks and doing dreaded litter box duty , just have it around to occasionally cuddle and play with (and they just loved pushing Kai’s buttons constantly with this) but that doesn’t mean Kai wants to have that responsibility either! And yeah he has gone out of his way to look up all the tips and ‘what’s to know for cats’ late at night for the past few days, managed to mentally bookmark all the nearby vets and know the best animal hospitals in Ninjago City, and maybe he – by pure coincidence – saw a really nice collar that would probably look good on Corn if he ever ( which he wouldn’t ) let him stay! And maybe he still has the tab open on his phone!
But that was only because he originally looked up ‘ how to keep cats from stealing my socks ’ on Borgle and ended up in a giant rabbit hole of the internet. It happens to everyone.
“Well if you don’t like him so much,” Nya pops up next to Lloyd– where she came from, Kai had no clue, “Why don’t you just put a screen on your window you just have to keep open all the time?”
“I did . But then he somehow tore it down and got stuck,” Kai doesn’t want the cat hurt , just gone, he’s no monster. Without moving Corn’s perch on his chest too much, Kai waves his foot in Nya’s face, “And I keep my window open all the time be- cause my window has the best view and gets the best airflow,”
Lloyd nods in agreement next to Nya, “It is really nice ventilation,”
“And a fantastic view,” Jay appears at the other side of the couch, Zane nods in agreement as he rises up next to him. Kai’s eye twitches.
“Okay– are all of you behind the couch right now–?”
“Of course not,” a plush spinning chair turns from where its back had been facing them. Pixal appears in view like an actual cartoon villain character, her lime green eyes glint through the shadows of the corner of the living space, “That would be physically impossible for all of us to be behind there unsuspectingly, Kai.”
“...Ok?” Is he still dreaming somehow?
A sharp prickle of paws kneading on his chest suggest otherwise. In pain, Kai starts to sit up when a voice makes him stop.
“Don’t you dare disrupt his tiny breadmaking, Smith .” Jay warned in a tone that he never imagined Jay could physically use. Like, glaring actual daggers at him. Kai froze, should he be feeling threatened severely ? “He’s got a baker’s quota to meet.”
“ What ??” Kai is so, so confused.
~~~~~
“Still no sign of him?”
“No,” Kai sighs, he breaks his long stare through his open window and flopping on his mattress, “nothing.”
It’s only been a week, Kai reminds himself. That damn cat had been for gone way longer in the past, he shouldn’t be so freaked out. But still, Corn hadn’t been gone for more than two or three days at most since Kai really let him stay, and suddenly he goes quiet? The timing is out of place, and it doesn’t help that the team is about to go off on another adventure –that will probably end in some sort of evil that tries to take over NinjagoCity– in a few days.
“I’m sure he’s fine,” he says, but he isn’t sure if he believes it fully. He watches Pixal step into his room, the robot making her way to the window where Corn hasn’t been seen since the week prior.
“Perhaps Corn has found his family,” She inquired, gazing out of the window. Kai doesn’t hear her mutter ‘ wow this is an exceptional view ,’ under her breath.
Kai picked himself up, leaning on his elbows with a raised brow. “You don’t think he was a stray?”
“He seemed too comfortable inside a home to be one. He must’ve had one at some point, maybe he found his way home,” She shrugged.
“Oh,” Kai felt his mood dampen a little, “I guess so…”
“I apologize...I did not mean to upset you,” Pixal turns, realizing she isn’t helping his mood since the cat’s sudden disappearance. She thumbs her palm, a motion she finds herself doing in awkward settings, “I thought it might help if you thought Corn would hypothetically be in a good situation,”
“It’s alright, Pix. I…” He’ll admit the furball had grown on him recently. And if Corn was really a lost pet, he’d want nothing more than for that family to have back their high maintenance fuzzball, “that's a better way to think about it. Thanks,”
Pixal’s eyes light up a little, and she smiles. A cool breeze from the lowering sunny sky blows through the window, the robot's hair dances with the soft wind, “Any time, Kai.”
A few days later, and with no sign of orange cats with a stub of a tail, the Ninja set off on the Bounty. Kai would usually close his window before they set off on missions like this, but this time he leaves his window open a crack, just in case a cat needed shelter. Though he made sure to keep items he knew Corn had a habit of stealing and hiding out of reach.
Two days into the mission, while they’re still traveling across Ninjago for their current lead, Kai sets the Bounty’s controls to autopilot with a yawn. The sun set a few hours ago, and Kai desperately needs something to eat and drink if he’s going to make it through the rest of his shift. Luckily the kitchen’s quarters are right below him, and he is definitely craving some of Zane’s dinner leftovers.
He sips on a fresh(ish) cup of coffee (don’t tell Wu) as he waits for the food to heat up. He’d do it himself but… he doesn’t feel like potentially setting the kitchen sprinkler system off again in the middle of the night, so he lets the oven do the job for him.
That’s when he first hears it. A scratching, pitter-patter along the floor boards, coming from the other side of the room. Then a light ‘whump’ of something falling to the ground, like a t-shirt that was thrown to the floor. Kai excuses it as the Bounty settles in its flight, creaks and groans of old wood filling the atmosphere. But this is much different than the sounds he’d grown accustomed to over the years.
Another skitter raced across the room, a very small shadow following in its path. Then silence.
Must be a rat… I hope, He thinks as he turns back to his coffee. He recoils at his own thoughts, wait, no I don’t.
But he lets curiosity get the best of him, the ninja quietly approaching where that first ‘whump’ came from. And in the dark corner of the Bounty’s kitchen, covered by shadows and darkness lay… a single sock.
But not just any sock. Kai’s sock.
…Well that is anticlimactic…
Kai rolls his eyes and scoffs at himself for being so nervous over nothing. He picks up the single sock and stuffs it into his sweatpants pocket, thinking it fell out of his bag when they first loaded up the ship.
The entire situation was nearly forgotten once the oven finally beeped.
It is nearly midnight when it happens again, right in the middle of Kai scrolling on social media at the wheel. He didn’t even register that something dashed across the floor towards him until he felt a tug at the hem of his sweatpants. He glances down, but nothing is there. He scans around the empty hull, loudly sipping the coffee in his obnoxiously, eyes narrowed. Another tug at his pants, along with a very familiar meow right behind him.
Kai, hearing it so close, whirls around in surprise. Whatever is tugging at his pants has weight because it swings around with him, then it starts climbing up his legs. Not knowing what to do, Kai tries to twist around himself to see behind him, his lips curl into a smile. Little clawed paws start scaling the back of his sweater, scaling over his shoulder. Kai can’t help but laugh in joy when he sees the all too familiar orange fur.
“Corn!” Kai leans forward a bit so the cat could get some balance along his back.
Corn finds his way to Kai’s shoulder, his claws still dig into the cloth, probably pulling out some hemming, but Kai didn’t care, his dampened mood and sleepiness washes away at finally seeing the little beast after so long. The cat purrs as loud as a truck as he pushes nearly all of his body weight into rubbing Kai’s face and hair with his own, whiskers tickling the man’s ears and nose.
“Hey little buddy,” Kai scoops Corn into his arms and holds him even when he climbs back to Kai’s wide smiling face to lick his nose with a sandpaper tongue, “ ew – have you been on the Bounty this whole time??”
Corn, as if answering, chirps a meow, rubbing his head under Kai’s chin.
The ship leans to the side, and Kai remembered that he was supposed to be steering the ship because it was not on autopilot. He wobbled over to the wheel as quickly as he could and spun it rightway, regaining control and balance. Both he and Corn, who is draped across his shoulders, wait for a reaction from the others who are hopefully still asleep below to notice his slight mistake. So far, silence.
“...Whoops,”
Crisis now averted (even though he caused it), Kai scratches Corn’s head with one hand as he continues his midnight shift. This time with the company of the– his – little menace.