Chapter Text
It wouldn't be a normal week if Garmadon didn't attack once or twice, and this particular week he chose to come on Monday. They were almost about to go on lunch break, too, which stank. Though Kai figured it wouldn't make sense if Garmadon had a convenient sense of timing. He was a villain, after all.
They split up, took on his troops, got banged around, and took down his mech as usual. Saved some people, ran into some buildings, hurt a shoulder or two, and won.
"We missed lunch," Cole groaned into the couch back at base, after they'd parked their mechs. "That was just rude of him."
"I can't believe we forgot to buy more ramen," Jay mumbled sadly, turning away from the mostly-empty cupboard.
Kai looked up from his seat on the floor and winced as he rolled his arm again. "We have like…chips, don't we?"
"Yeah, and nothing else."
"Whatever, we only have an hour and a half left of school anyways," shrugged Lloyd. "Then we can go home and get food. It's not that long to wait."
They all turned on him instantly.
"You have no place to speak," Kai scolded. "You only eat if we force it down your throat."
"Yeah, you don't get a say in this conversation," agreed Cole.
"I vote we get food just so Lloyd eats," offered Jay.
"I second this idea," Zane said.
"But guys–"
"Shut up," Nya ordered, shoving her full weight onto him. "I agree too."
"But won't people ask why we aren't in school?" persisted Lloyd, albeit a little muffled.
Kai smirked at him. "Nobody questions the secret ninja force. Cole, you wanna come with me and grab something?"
"Sure," Cole said, getting up and pulling his hood and mask back on.
"What you guys want?" asked Kai.
"Get more ramen, please," said Jay, raising a hand like he was in class.
"A healthy balance of nutrients and protein is best for humans to eat, especially after exertion," Zane suggested enthusiastically.
"Ice cream," said Nya.
Kai gave her a shove. "Geez, you're almost as healthy as Lloyd. And speaking of, what do you want?"
"I'm not really–"
"I swear!" shouted Nya, grabbing a pillow from beside her and smushing it in his face. She turned to Kai, ignoring his struggles. "Get him noodles or dumplings or something. And lots of it. He probably hasn't eaten in a week."
"I have too," protested Lloyd, resurfacing from under the pillow.
"Will do," said Kai, also ignoring Lloyd.
Cole tapped out a few notes on his phone and slid it back into his pocket. "Alright, we'll be back. Nya, keep a hold on Lloyd so he doesn't try to run away."
Nya saluted, Lloyd said "I'm not that bad!" and the other two waved.
"Okay, that everything?" Kai asked, when about ten minutes later he and Cole were about to get in the checkout line of a nearby grocery store.
"I think so," Cole said, glancing over their handful of items.
"Alright, cool."
It looked very, very normal for two fully decked out ninjas to be standing in line at the lousy little downtown store, Kai told himself. Totally. Thankfully the shop was just lousy enough to be mostly empty, but just good enough to have a fair selection of food. Kai set the basket down on the conveyor belt and oof, his shoulder was still sore from the fight.
The aged, tired-looking cashier didn't glance up when he started scanning. "Find everything all right?" he asked mechanically.
"Yeah, thanks," said Kai. He noticed Cole squinting at him. "What?"
"Your arm okay?"
"Hm?" Kai looked at his shoulder reflexively. Part of the red sleeve was turning a different shade. "Oh. Um."
"Okay, we're looking at that when we get back," he replied in a low voice.
"It's fine, I just scraped it," Kai whispered in reply. "Just needs a bandage is all."
Cole's stare was not convinced.
"...Promise?" Kai tried.
"Yeah, you have about as good a history of taking care of yourself as Lloyd, let's be honest," Cole said. "You're not ignoring another injury on my watch."
"Jeez, whatever." Kai rolled his eyes. "Dramatic much?"
"Twenty-four fifty-eight is your total, will that be cash or card," sighed the cashier.
"Cash," replied Cole, handing him money as Kai started picking up the bags. Cole shot him with a look when he used his hurt arm and Kai set the bag down with a second eyeroll.
The register chimed. "Here's your change. Have a great rest of your day."
"You too," said Kai brightly.
Cole grabbed the other bag and they headed out the doors. "Annnd…we made it out unnoticed," he announced.
"Heck yea!" Kai nodded. "Makes our day a whole lot easier."
"But don't think your arm's gonna go unnoticed," Cole said sternly.
Kai shrugged, but the casualness was stiff. "Seriously. It doesn't hurt that bad. We always get banged up a little, right?." He looked up hopefully, but his claims hadn't worked. "Alright, alright, I'll bandage it good when we get back."
"I still think it'd be a good idea to have someone look at it."
"Nah–"
Cole was not going to have it.
Kai sighed. "Okay, fine."
"Hey, they're back!" called Jay, jumping up as Kai and Cole entered. He ran over and grabbed a bag from Kai. "Time for lunch!"
Kai came over to where the others had been playing a board game while they waited, and dropped a box on top of Nya.
She studied it. "You actually got ice cream?"
"I mean, why not," he shrugged.
"You were the one talking about being healthy."
"You can have some ramen too, don't worry. And these…" he reached into Cole's bag "..are yours, Lloyd."
"Yay," Lloyd said in a jokingly flat tone. But when he looked at the package of frozen dumplings, Kai couldn't not notice how he perked up a little. "Oh nice. Thanks."
"Yep," Kai said.
Jay turned from where he was opening the pack of noodle bowls. "Okay, so how many people need hot water?"
Kai always got a little spacey when a place seemed so much like a home. It was usually here – mostly because they were usually here – but anywhere he fit into a comfortable bustle of activity and chatter, something clicked and for a few moments he felt like he was looking at a picture. It was a nice picture: the five of them making food for each other, hanging on arms and shoulders because they were a little tired, poking each other and smiling, talking about everything, laughing sometimes. Six of them including him, he reminded himself.
The only thing in his mind when he got like that was the word 'family,' and it would repeat itself a hundred times, trying to either get into his head or get out of it. He wasn't sure which one.
He also didn't know why the word was there. The team wasn't a family. They were friends, best friends; family was different. Family had a little more…tension involved.
So why, he always asked his mind, did the word keep circling?
"Hey, Kai?"
Nya's voice pulled him from his thoughts.
"Yeah?" he asked, smiling at her.
"Cole said you got hurt, can I take a look for you?"
Gosh, he didn't waste any time, did he. They hadn't even eaten yet.
"Fine, as long as it doesn't take too long," Kai sighed.
They went to the other side of the big warehouse room, where there was a stash of first-aid kits and other supplies. While their mechs kept them shielded for the most part, there had still been a number of incidents where the medical training Wu had given them proved very useful. And then of course there was Lloyd, who, in Kai's opinion, really could have designed a safer mech to begin with, but—don't get him started on that.
Kai rolled up the loose sleeve of his gi while Nya pulled one of the white-and-red boxes off the shelf. She gently felt the scraped area to see if there were any problems, then took out a roll of bandages and started to patch him up.
"You know, you didn't have to do it this time," Kai said offhand after a few minutes.
She glanced up, meeting his eyes. "What do you mean?"
He nodded slightly to his arm, and she looked at it for a bit before her fingers tightened on the bandage.
"Well, for consistency's sake, at least," she muttered. There was something almost dark behind her quiet voice.
Kai wasn't sure if it was a laugh or scoff or what that he gave in reply, but whatever it was he didn't like the sound of it. "Yeah. Guess so. Cause it'll be back to normal pretty soon."
"Shut up," she whispered harshly, looking towards the rest of the group.
"Sorry," he said automatically. Then he groaned with suppressed frustration and ran his free hand through his hair. "Sorry. It's just so…" He huffed. "Stupid."
Nya adjusted the wrap before continuing. "Yeah, but what can you do."
He looked up, his posture changing to defensive—he deflated. And he didn't say another word while Nya was finishing, because she was right and he knew it, and he hated it. He always did something. That was part of who he was. Not with this.
"Okay, I think you're good to go," she said, pulling the end of the bandage taut. "It seemed like just scratches a little deeper than normal, nothing awful."
"Oh, how interesting. What have I been saying this whole time?"
She smacked him lightly with the bandage roll. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just go eat noodles. I'll be right there."
"Thanks," he said, giving her a side-hug before he went back across the room.
The microwave was just going off and Lloyd was insisting he had to share the dumplings. Cole was checking on him again, with Zane peering over his shoulder in studious accord. Jay was humming as he sat on the counter and waited for the water to boil and for Nya to come back.
Kai shut his eyes for a second and forced whatever remaining thoughts about family back into the parts of his mind where he tried not to look (alongside homework assignments, history dates, and a bunch of other junk). His smile felt weirdly half-and-half: half pretending, and the other real half coming from them.