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Lloyd hummed a soft tune as he dipped his hands beneath piles of bubbles, into the hot water below. Out from the soapy depths, he blindly retrieved a pie tin. Arin had just baked the pie earlier that day. The teen boy really had a knack for baking. Lloyd hasn’t cared too much for sweets since he was a kid, but tasting Arin’s pies put him right back on that sugar-obsessed mindset that he once had. The only downside was washing the same pie tin every single day. There were never these many dishes before. Strange, seeing as they were five people now, six if you included Riyu, although that wasn’t far off from their previous team size of eight.
Lloyd scrubbed the sponge over the dirty pie tin, cleaning it of the triple-berry pie crumbs. Lloyd held the tin up to catch that light, checking for any remaining specs of dough. As he tilted the shiny tin, Lloyd caught a flash of red on the reflective surface. He tilted the tin back to see the person, already knowing who it was. It could be no other than the fire ninja. Kai. Lloyd smiled softly as he admired Kai through the reflection. The red ninja leaned against the counter, slowly nursing on a cup of tea. Lloyd knew it must be cold by now. He didn’t understand why Kai was dragging out his drink. Lloyd already told him that as soon as he finished, Kai needed to give him the mug so he could clean it. Lloyd hated doing all the dishes, only to have one or two items still be dirty after he finished.
Lloyd’s gentle humming paused, as did the rest of his body, as he looked at Kai's handsome face. His face glowed a soft pink at the expression gracing his friend’s features. It seemed Lloyd was not the only one admiring something. Lloyd quickly rinsed the soap off the pie tin and set it on the rank to dry. His hands hesitated to reach into the soapy water. The image of Kai’s loving expression kept flashing before his eyes.
Lloyd cleared his throat and turned around to face the other man. He leaned against the counter, mirroring the red ninja. He wished he could be as relaxed as the other was. Maybe if he faked it and copied Kai’s actions long enough, he could be just as smooth as the other man. “You keep staring,” Lloyd simply stated.
“Oh? Sorry, just tired and staring off into space,” Kai excused as he tore his eyes down to his right.
“Mhm,” Lloyd hummed. He glanced down at his hands as he unconsciously picked at the skin surrounding his nails. Lloyd took a deep breath before speaking up again. “You’ve been doing it a lot lately. Ever since I found you and Nya with the Craglings.”
Kai set his mug down, the ceramic clinking with the tiles of the kitchen counter. He folded his arms across his chest. Lloyd noted the movement. He was nervous, just as Lloyd was. His face did not show it, only conveying smooth casualness. But you did not live every day with someone for years upon years without learning all their mannerisms, especially their nervous habits. “I…” Kai hesitated as he tried to speak. His tan skin flushed a subtle maroon. “It’s just been a while since I’ve seen you.”
Lloyd nodded in agreement. It’s been a painful couple of years. Lloyd always thought it would be nice to live alone and have the monastery all to himself. No more Cole snoring. No more of Jay blasting video games. No more overhearing Zane and Pixal’s late-night discussions as neither of the robots required sleep. No more taking cold showers as Kai hogged all the hot water. No more of hearing Nya beat the training dummies to a pulp when she could not sleep. No more sunrise exercises from Master Wu. It sounded so peaceful. But even from the first day, Lloyd was miserable. He couldn’t sleep. Noises that he once found disruptive, now he missed. How was he supposed to sleep without the background music of his friends? He felt so ungrateful. All those times he had stomped out of his room to tell his friends to quiet down. Yet once they were gone, he would have done anything to have them back. He’d lose any amount of sleep and take only freezing showers just for five minutes with all his friends again.
Having Kai and Nya back, as well as the recent addition of Sora and Arin, was so healing. Lloyd took cold showers once more and figured out how to fix the broken dummies. Yet he was happy. Even now, he could hear Sora and Arin chattering away in their shared room. Occasionally, he could hear one of them burst into a fit of giggles, followed by gentle shushing. The teens should be asleep. So should Kai and Lloyd. It was already late and Lloyd wanted to get some work done tomorrow. He always had work tomorrow nowadays.
The green ninja sighed and pushed himself off the counter. He walked over to Kai, abandoning the dishes. Lloyd settled next to the fire ninja and rested his head on the taller man’s shoulder. “I missed you,” Lloyd murmured.
Kai tensed as the shorter leaned against him. “Missed you too,” Kai spoke almost silently, his voice strained.
Lloyd glanced back at Kai’s cup of tea before shifting his focus to Kai’s warm face. “Your mug is empty.”
“Yeah, I had just finished my tea.”
“Hm. You’re lying to me. That mug is bone-dry. Did you seriously pretend to drink from an empty cup just to admire me?”
“What?” Kai exclaimed incredulously, sputtering over his following words. “Me? I wouldn’t! I don’t know why you would think I would ever do that! That’d be weird! And- and totally not something I would do!”
Lloyd broke out into laughter and nuzzled closer. “It’s okay, Kai. I get it,” Lloyd assured after his giggles died down. “I don’t want to spend time apart, either.” Lloyd felt as Kai’s tense shoulder finally relaxed under him. “But you could’ve just said so. You didn’t have to fake that you were drinking tea just to be around me.”
“To be fair, I did genuinely come into the kitchen for a drink. I hadn’t known you were here. I just wanted to drink my tea, but I got… distracted.”
“I see. So how long have you been pretending to drink then?” Lloyd asked teasingly.
“About…” Kai glanced at the time displayed on the oven. “An hour?”
“An hour?” Lloyd repeated, a little shocked by how long Kai had dragged out his stay in the kitchen. “You really missed me, huh?”
“Yeah… I really did,” Kai agreed softly. He looked down at Lloyd. He took in all the details of the other man. His light hair with subtle gold hues. It felt soft against Kai’s exposed shoulder. His pajamas rarely included sleeved shirts or pants, only shorts to stop him from overheating during the night. Lloyd lifted his gaze and the two’s eyes met. They held each other’s gaze for what felt like seconds and hours at the same time. Kai admired Lloyd’s face now. The subtle curve of Lloyd’s cheeks. His soft pink lips. His eyes held so much love and compassion, distracting from the inner heartache and the dark drooping bags below. The lime green of his iris set Lloyd apart from most people in Ninjago, who typically bore darker colored eyes. Though Kai swore that was not all that was special about Lloyd’s eyes. Kai often insisted that his eyes glowed slightly, not just when Lloyd used his powers. No one ever believed him. Kai supposed no one else spent the amount of time he did focusing on Lloyd’s pretty eyes.
“What were you thinking about?” Lloyd whispered, breaking Kai’s train of thought.
“Nothing.”
“Kai,” Lloyd said sternly.
“What?” Kai asked, voice pitching as he pretended to not know what Lloyd was implying.
“You were clearly thinking about something. You’ve had the same expression every time you stare at me. It’s…” Lloyd felt a lump develop in his throat as he thought of the words to describe how Kai looked at him. “I don’t want to have secrets between us.” Kai frowned and looked away. “C’mon, Kai, talk to me.”
“I-” Kai hesitated and squeezed his eyes shut. “I’m sorry, it’s weird.”
“I don’t mind. We already know so much about each other and I still haven’t judged you yet. Well- except for when I found out you like whipped cream in your tea.”
“It tastes good! It’s no different from mixing in sugar and milk!”
“You’re going off topic.”
Kai sighed. He really thought he could get Lloyd to argue with him again about why it was strange. That way, he wouldn’t have to admit what he had been thinking. Kai procrastinated speaking as he considered what to say. Does he rip the bandaid off and admit it right away? Or does he ease into it? “I was thinking about you…”
“That part was obvious. What about me?”
Kai huffed at the hint of sass in Lloyd’s tone. “When I was mapping the merged realm, I thought of you a lot. I… I really missed you. I missed everyone else, too. But you…” Lloyd had captured every waking thought of Kai’s mind during those days. Kai would reminisce about his friends, but at the center of every thought or daydream stood Lloyd. “I don’t think I realized just how close we are until we were apart. I don’t think it helped that you were the only one I was sure survived. Or that I sent constant letters but could never receive any.” Lloyd noticed as Kai’s shoulders curled inward. He silently held out his hand, and Kai took it, weaving their fingers together wordlessly. There was no need for words when it came to physical affection between the two. Especially when it came to hand holding. They began to hold hands to comfort each other after Lloyd’s panic attacks following Morro’s possession.
“I often thought about writing to you to tell you to come find me, so we could explore together. But I knew you had important work here protecting everyone from the mergequakes. So then I thought of coming back here to help you. I guess I more so just wanted to be around you again. I didn’t want to be alone anymore,” Kai admitted.
“I get what you mean. I didn’t want to be alone, either. Encouraging you to map out the world without me was one of the hardest things I’ve done. I… It’s stupid,” Lloyd brought his free hand to the other clasped in Kai’s hand and pulled at a piece of loose skin. “I started keeping a diary. Less of a diary, I guess, more of a long letter to Wu to catch him up to speed when we find him. If we do. Those couple of weeks right after the merge, when I thought I was the sole survivor, they were… tough. But I remember when writing about finding you…” Lloyd flushed as he recalled his words, including all the brush strokes he had to convince himself not to make. He wanted to show this to Wu. So he could not put his private thoughts in there. “I wrote about how you gave me hope because I didn’t have to do this alone anymore.”
“Is that what you wanted all those polaroids for?” Lloyd nodded his head, still peeling his dead skin on his thumb. He primarily wanted them for himself, but Kai did not need that inofrmation. “I’d like to see what else you wrote about. You know so much about what I did alone, but I know nothing about what you did here. Plus, it’d be interesting to see what else you plan to tell Wu about me.” As Kai spoke, he moved his thumb to cover Lloyd’s, stopping the shorter’s insistent skin picking.
Lloyd buried his face in Kai’s shoulder as he recalled his most recent entry. Specifically, where he had written about finding Kai being the best thing to happen and how he did not want to let Kai out of his sight ever again. Lloyd could not show Kai that entry. Especially when compared to Nya’s entry, in which he had written about how he had found her and what she had done, only dedicating two lines to his joy of finding her. It’s not that Lloyd loved her less. He just… loved her differently than he did Kai.
“What? That bad?” Kai chuckled, given Lloyd’s hiding and silence. “Did you write about how I totally led those Terra Dragons to the Cragling kingdom and then messed up your fighting strategy?”
“No. I only wrote good things about you,” Lloyd said, lifting his head to look up at Kai again. The brunette tilted his head, gently encouraging Lloyd to go on. “I wrote about how happy I was to find you again. I said that…” Lloyd hesitated again. Was he really going to admit to that? But with an encouraging nod from Kai, he supposed he had to. “Finding you was the best thing to happen to me.”
“Finding you was the best thing to happen to me, too,” Kai murmured. The two’s eyes locked. Lloyd’s face seemed closer to his than before. Kai glanced down at Lloyd’s lips before darting back to those sparkling green eyes. Suddenly, Kai was very aware of how close they were. “I… I wasn’t completely honest.” Lloyd's eyebrows scrunched together in confusion. “I was thinking about more than just how I missed you.”
Lloyd watched as Kai hesitated, glancing down at his lips again. “What else were you thinking about?” Lloyd prompted.
“I… I was thinking about how… I think I have a crush on you,” Kai admitted, voice so soft that Lloyd was not sure if he had even heard it correctly.
Still, the green ninja reacted. “You…?” He pulled away from the older man as he took a step back, and his eyes widened in surprise.
Kai cringed at the other’s reaction. He turned his face away from Lloyd and tried to pull away his hand too, but the green ninja did not let him. “I’m sorry. I don’t know when it started. I only noticed after we separated. I just couldn’t get you off my mind. I thought about what I would do when we met again, and all of it ended the same. In us kissing. I’m sorry. That’s weird. I just- I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“Kai,” Lloyd spoke up, stopping the other’s worried ramblings. “It’s okay. You’re not making me uncomfortable. In fact…” Lloyd brought his free hand up to Kai’s chin and gently turned Kai back to face him, showing the older the fond smile that now graced his lips. “I have a crush on you, too.”
Kai felt his heart explode in his chest. Now it was his turn for his eyes to widen in shock. There was no way. Lloyd liked him back? Kai must’ve hit his head, and now this was a hallucination designed to placate him. Lloyd, the green ninja, the grandson of the First Spinjitzu Master, the most powerful person in Ninjago, who had the grand destiny of protecting the world from evil. That was the same Lloyd who loved Kai. With all that power, Lloyd could have practically anyone he wanted. Yet he chose Kai. Kai . “No way,” Kai mumbled.
“Yes way,” Lloyd giggled. “I’ve had a crush on you for years now.”
“Years?”
“You can’t face your fear of water to save a guy’s life and risk your own life, then expect him not to fall in love with you,” Lloyd chuckled.
“Wow…” Kai mumbled. He felt as his brain lagged, trying to count the numerous years it had been since Morro possessed Lloyd. “Wow,” Kai repeated. That was all his brain could muster. He still couldn’t believe it.
“Wow indeed,” Lloyd agreed with a grin. He took a step forward, grinning wider as Kai’s face grew more red as Lloyd pressed his body against Kai’s. “You’re doing really well at flirting with your crush right now,” Lloyd sarcastically teased. “I now see why all the girls are constantly falling for your allure.”
“I-” Kai couldn’t even defend himself as he felt his words catch in his throat. His heart thumped in his chest. Kai could not believe this. His crush’s lips were mere centimeters away as their chests pressed together. He wanted to say something. Maybe about how he had never expected to get this far with Lloyd. He hadn’t intended to reveal his feelings, as Kai valued their friendship over everything else. He never wanted to even potentially ruin his friendship with Lloyd. Kai also hadn’t been around another person in years. He was still adjusting to no longer being alone. It’d been even longer since Kai had flirted with anyone. Ever since Skylor rejected him, Kai had spent time reflecting on himself rather than flirting with every cute girl or guy he came across.
What Skylor had told Kai truly stuck with him. He never texted or called and then when he saw her again, he just expected to fall into the same routine. Kai had never thought there would be a day that his good looks didn’t automatically gain the affections of who he was interested in. So he was out of practice. Not only was he out of practice, but Kai had made the conscious decision when he realized his crush to treat Lloyd better than any previous partners or dates, that was if he got the chance to.
However, deciding one thing was harder than doing it. How was he supposed to treat Lloyd better? All Kai knew was how to make people fall for his hot looks and fiery personality. Lloyd deserved more than surface level. He deserved someone who would protect him and always stand beside him, even on the darkest of days. Kai didn’t even stop to consider that the person Lloyd deserved was already who Kai was.
“I never expected you to be shy like this,” Lloyd giggled.
“I never expected you to like me back.”
Lloyd hummed softly and nodded in understanding. His eyes flickered down to Kai’s lips, then looked back up, silently asking. Kai immediately understood and deftly nodded his head.
Lloyd closed the gap and connected their lips in a gentle kiss. Lloyd’s hand remained on Kai’s chin, his fingers lightly holding Kai’s jaw. Meanwhile, his other hand squeezed Kai’s hand.
Kai melted into the kiss. It felt better than any kiss he’d ever had before. Not because Lloyd was particularly skilled. Kai knew Lloyd kissed very few people. It felt like heaven because Kai loved and yearned for Lloyd. This was not a quick fling based on looks and physical attraction. This was deeper. Kai loved Lloyd’s mind and soul. He loved who Lloyd was. Not his role as the green ninja, but his never-ending compassion. Kai’s free arm wrapped around Lloyd and rested his hand on Lloyd’s lower back.
“I love you,” Lloyd mumbled, pulling away from Kai’s lips just enough to say it. His warm breath fanned over Kai’s lips. Lloyd tried to press their lips together once more, but stopped as Kai rested his forehead against Lloyd’s instead.
“Oh First Master…” Kai mumbled. Kai had never felt so flustered in his life. “I love you too.” The words felt strange on his tongue. Words that he had spent the last couple of years mulling over. He loved Lloyd. He never expected he could say it to Lloyd outside a platonic sense. Lloyd grinned and placed a quick peck on Kai’s lips. “I want to take you out on a date,” Kai mentioned. He wanted to say it first, before Lloyd could ask. “I want to spoil you rotten, too.”
“You don’t have to spoil me or take me out. I’m already satisfied like this,” Lloyd said, modest as always.
“No. I want to. You deserve it,” Kai insisted. “I want to take you to a nice restaurant and give you everything you want. You never take for yourself. So I want to give it to you.”
Lloyd pouted at Kai, but it didn’t make the older budge, so the blonde sighed. “Fine. I’ll let you spoil me, but only a little bit!”
“Hm nope! I’m going to give you the world,” Kai decided, finalizing his choice with a kiss. He truly didn’t need any of the fire ninja’s spoiling or fancy dates.
Lloyd already had the world in Kai’s affection.