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"Walk faster!" Liu Kang whispered, his footsteps as light as possible on the cold tiles.
The Sky Temple was as silent as a tomb in this hour of the night, and even at such a low volume, it seemed like the room reverberated with his whispers.
"I'm trying but you didn't even give me time to put on my shoes!" Kung Lao protested. "All you did was wake me up and tell me to brush my teeth because my breath smelled bad."
"Well it did!"
"Because I was sleeping!"
Liu Kang scoffed. "Sleeping is for losers, Kung Lao, come on. I think there's a ladder up here. It's not the highest level but it's good enough for what I need to do."
The Sky Temple was certainly beautiful - he thought. It was hard to make out the architecture's marvels in the moonlight - rather he could just see the silhouettes of the pillars, and even it was incredible.
Liu Kang scaled up the ladder with ease, and before long, he peered over the edge of the roof, looking down on his friend. "You are slower than your grandfather."
"I was trying not to break anything. Do you know how much pots Raiden just leaves lying around? And anyway you met my grandfather, he's over eighty years old and he can do a bodyslam."
"You have a lot of excuses." Liu Kang remarked.
"Well, you have a lot of complaints."
"I'm trying to motivate you."
"You're really failing."
With a hefty sigh, Liu Kang left Kung Lao's line of sight and he reached the top of the ladder without further "words of encouragement".
"Oh, wow."
The words which left Kung Lao could not adequately convey his emotions as he stared up at the sky. Each star seemed to shine so much brighter atop the Sky Temple - they barely scraped the surface of its monolithic height, but here, it seemed like a slice of heaven.
"I know right?" Liu Kang said, unable to suppress his smile. "It's… beautiful. We've been here so many times but I never saw it like this."
"We're not even that high," Kung Lao said, before peering down. "Nevermind, we are, I'm going to stop looking down."
"Come on, come on, stop getting distracted by the stars. I want to show you something!" The giddiness was rampant in Liu Kang's voice. "Okay, you ready?"
He walked over to the edge of the roof, and with such precision and care, released a fireball into the sky, where it soared for so far before exploding in a shower of glorious embers. It illuminated the entire village.
"That was amazing!" Kung Lao gasped. "By the Elder Gods, where did you learn to do that?"
"I skipped those family dinners with Raiden for a reason," Liu Kang laughed, before releasing another fireball into the sky. The shower of embers drizzled down spectacularly. "Oh no. Was that footsteps? Is someone coming? We better get down before anyone sees us-"
"No way."
Liu Kang spun around in bewilderment. "I'm sorry?"
Kung Lao crossed his arms. "You woke me up before sunrise to see you shoot two fireballs in the sky? No way. We're staying here till sunrise, I bet it's something special to watch it here. Raiden spends all his time here, there must be some reason."
"Kung Lao, you must be mad. What if someone sees us?"
"Better make it worth it, then," Kung Lao said with a smile and it was clear his friend was won over.
"Fine. I hope you brought something to eat though, I am starving."
Kung Lao tipped his hat with a smirk to reveal a tied cloth with several rice cakes instead.
"You seriously brought food?"
"You're welcome."
Liu Kang grabbed one of them and laughed. "I can't believe you actually brought food."
"I have to make sure you're well-fed. You're more unbearable than usual when you're hungry."
"Oh, very funny, I'll push you off this roof."
"I'll take you down with me," Kung Lao replied, "and do we really want to explain that to Raiden?"
"I suppose."
They sat in absolute silence after that, save for the occasional crunch of the rice cake.
"Thanks for showing me that, by the way," Kung Lao said, after a while, his eyes fixed on the stars.
"Oh, the fireworks thing?"
"Yeah."
"You're welcome."
And if Kung Lao didn't know better he'd swear there was a hint of gratitude in what Liu Kang said next. "Thanks for wanting to see it."
"It's no problem, I'm always up for any of your ideas, you know that. For better or for worse."