Chapter Text
Swoosh. Kai’s sword swung towards Cole. Jumping backwards, he just barely avoided it.
“Come on, Cupcake!” Kai remarked. “Put your back into it.” He’d bet good money that if he looked closer, Cole would be blushing.
“Please don’t taunt me!” Was all he got in reply. Lame.
Cole swung his scythe wildly towards him, forcing Kai to jump on top of one of the training posts. Cole jumped upwards and swung again, this time nicking Kai across the chest.
“Hey!”
“Sorry, handsome, I thought you’d react faster.” This time Cole smirked. Douchebag.
Kai jumped towards him, sword meeting scythe midair. The two were stuck in a bind, but Kai knew Cole was definitely going easy on him, since he was certainly more physically capable. He decided he needed a better approach. He jumped backwards, avoiding the scythe, and started parkouring across the training equipments.
“Catch me if you can, Cole!”
“What, hey! We’re supposed to be training, not playing tag!” Cole tried to cut him off, but Kai just turned and ran faster.
“Kai, wait up!”
“Ha ha.” Kai kept running, but as he turned again to avoid a moving training pole, he tripped on a spare training sword someone (probably Jay) left lying around.
“Whup.” Kai’s sword went flying into a wooden post, and he hit the ground hard.
“Kai!” Cole ran up to him, holding out his hand. “Are you ok?”
Kai reached up to take it, but something in his back clicked, and he fell back in pain. “Peachy.”
Nya and Jay looked up from their own duel, seemingly questioning what had happened.
“Sorry guys! I just keep falling for Cole!”
Cole didn’t look impressed and decided to reach under him and pick him up bridal style.
“Hey! Hands off the package! Take me on a date first!” Cole blushed at his words but kept carrying him. He headed towards Zane’s room, the walk being incredibly awkward and silent. Cole’s loud footsteps echoed in the hallway, and Kai could hear Nya and Jay playing video games down the hall. Cole continuously shifted his hands, and Kai was starting to feel nervous. He wasn’t really sure why.
Their walk was silent towards the Ice ninja’s room, but the hallway felt like it was getting longer. He fell on his back! Why is his head hurting!
Zane was mid-book when they entered. He turned to them and seemed to analyze the situation for a quiet second.
“Is there an issue? It seems rather precarious to carry Kai that way.” Zane looked almost suspicious at them, but for what reason, Kai didn’t know.
“What? I have an amazing grip on Kai, it’s just that he’s being weird about it.” Oof. That was not the intent. Was Kai really that bad at flirting?
“Oh, sorry, Cole. It was just a joke. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.” The other looked at him with a small smile. Was that him accepting Kai’s apology?
“Could you tell me what happened? Why are you being carried, Kai?”
“Oh, uh, I fell while me and Cole were practicing.” He kind of felt embarrassed now, turning his head to hide in the crook of Cole’s neck. He felt the skin below him turn warm.
“I suppose I should take a look then. Come, please lay him on my bed, Cole.”
Kai felt sad when he was removed from Cole’s arms but relented so as not to make the other boy uncomfortable.
“Please remove your shirt, Kai. I need to examine your back better.”
“Ugh, fine.” He took off the sweaty shirt and threw it on the floor. “Are you sure you want me on your bed, Zane? I was just exercising, believe it or not.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could swear he saw Cole sweating despite their training being long over. Why was he even still here?
“I am well aware of what you were doing Kai, it was just explained to me. Perhaps I should check you for a concussion as well?”
Kai grumbled, “It was a joke, man.” Way to take the fun out of it.
He lied down on his stomach, face on a pillow, staring up at the black-haired boy.
“Hey sweetie, like what you see?” Cole just rolled his eyes.
He could feel Zane’s hands tracing his injury, somehow sensing it in a way.
“Nothing’s broken, but I recommend you take the rest of today and tomorrow off.”
Kai got up and started heading for the door.
He didn’t walk more than 5 steps when Zane suggested, “Perhaps you should drink some tea first?”
“Healing tea?” Zane was already heading out of the room, probably towards the kitchen.
“Of course.”
Kai sat back down. Drinking healing tea right now felt like a little bit too much. He didn’t even break anything! But he also didn’t want to say no to Zane. There was a reason the nindroid was the designated doctor for any injury that you couldn’t slap a bandaid on.
Cole coughed into his hand. Oh, whoops, was he meant to be saying something right now?
“So, uh, lovely weather we’re having today, huh, handsome?”
Cole looked at him blankly. Wrong thing to say?
“There hasn’t been any rain, or clouds, you know?” Was he digging his grave right now?
Cole moved over to the bed, sitting down beside him.
“Yeah, the weather has been pretty nice.” He had a small smile, maybe it was the right thing to say? Why was having a crush so difficult??
The sunlight from Zane’s window was hitting the two of them in a soft, golden light. His friend was quite literally glowing. He couldn’t help but stare into his endlessly dark brown eyes. Everything faded away except the other boy.
He’s been staring for a while now, hasn’t he?
Cole was looking at him curiously; he kind of felt like he was a bug in a flytrap.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you, Kai. What are w-“
“I’ve returned with tea.”
Both Kai and Cole jumped about a foot off the bed.
“FSM, Zane. I didn’t know you’d be back so soon.” Was all Kai could get out, his heart beating to fast.
“Apologies, data I’ve collected suggested that making tea before training would ensure mistakes were taken care of before they could expand into more dire injuries.”
What?
Zane must have read his face because he sighed. “I make tea before practice so I can help you guys better when you get injured.”
Oh, cool.
He started to try to get up but tripped on seemingly nothing. Cole caught him.
Cole nervously asked, “Why don’t I take you to your room?”
“Wow, such a gentleman, you.” Cole seemed to react better to that flirt, or he at least didn’t freeze or anything.
The two walked again in silence, but this one felt a lot more comfortable. Kai could feel his thoughts starting to wane, sleepiness taking over.
“Dude, it’s noon. How are you falling asleep right now?” Cole looked kinda concerned. Man, he’s so cute.
“I dunno man, maybe I’m just a lil lazy today.” Kai’s shoulders slumped a little, and he sagged forward.
Cole caught him around his middle. “What did Zane put in your tea?”
Zane’s voice popped into his head. “I put some sleeping tea in to help Kai rest. I understand the sneakiness of this act may seem unwarranted, but it seems Kai has not been sleeping properly these past few nights.
Cole’s head turned around. Oh, wait, Zane was actually still here, wasn’t he? They were hardly 4 feet from his door.
“He’s not going to like that you drugged him when he wakes up, Zane.”
“I know, but he needs the rest. I could give you some tea too, Cole. …waning on your sleep… as well.”
“Oh, uh, no thanks, Zane. I’ll be sure to… earlier.”
Kai stumbled off of Cole, feeling more drowsy by the minute. Cole and Zane were still talking behind him. He felt oddly annoyed that Cole wasn’t paying attention to him at the moment. The outlines of the hallway felt oddly blurred, but he decided to ignore that fact. As fast as he could, he walked down the hall towards his room. Apparently, his fastest speed was a snail that was crushed by a shoe because it took Cole no time at all to catch up to him.
“Kai… it up…”
“Mmhmm.” Was all he could say in reply. Woah. Words, am I right?
Cole must have decided Kai needed to be embarrassed for the 5th time today, since he once again picked him up bridal style.
By the time they’d made it to his room, he felt as though he could melt into Cole’s shoulder. He could hear his door open behind him and watched from behind as Cole carried him into the room.
Cole set him down on the bed, maneuvering him under the covers. He saw the other boys’ hands resting on the covers and couldn’t resist reaching out to hold them.
“Can you rest with me?” He tried his most convincing doe eyes. Cole didn’t say anything, but he once again flushed and looked away. Kai was about to apologize when the older lightly nudged him to the right and lied down beside him. Kai sighed with content.
Cole and Kai were now sleeping in the same bed.
Kai could feel his heart speeding up, and desperately hoped the other wouldn’t hear. If Cole found out Kai was nervous at the thought of love, he’d probably clown on him for the rest of his life. Actually, Cole was probably too nice to do that.
“Can I ask you something, Kai?” When Kai turned to face him, Cole was looking straight up at the ceiling.
“Sureeeee. I’m all ears, darling.” He tried to wink, but his muscle coordination seemed to be a bit broken since all he did was blink.
“What are we?” That was a fair question, wasn’t it? Kai hadn’t missed the glances of all the other ninja, questioning if the two of them were dating or not, no doubt.
“Hmmmmm. I’m not quite sure. What do you want us to be, Cole?”
“I want us to be more.”
“You’re gonna have to be more specific.” He drawled out the sentence as much as possible to give Cole enough time to respond.
“I—I think I want us to date. Maybe. We don’t have—“
“He he. I’d like that very much, boyfriend.” He couldn’t help the bright smile that crossed his face as he turned fully to his lover. Cole looked shocked.
“That. That fast? Are you sure? We might not—“
“You’re in my bed right now, Cole. I’ve been calling you as many pet names as I can think of. I’m not really sure how much more gay this can get.”
“Fair point.”
“Why don’t we talk about this tomorrow morning, huh? When I’m not seeing stars and thinking about ninja smoothies.”
“Ninja what?”
“We’re all fruit colored, yknow. Sometimes my mind wanders.”
“Go to bed, handsome.”
Kai pulled Cole closer and rested his head on the other's shoulder. He could feel the warmth between them radiating as if they were merging. He listened to their hearts beating in synchronization and their breaths aligning; he slept better than he had for weeks.
When Kai woke up, the first thing he felt was ache. His arms and legs were incredibly sore from his awkward sleeping position, and his left arm was all static-like. Safe to say, he didn’t enjoy it. What he did enjoy was the breathtaking sight before him. He’d almost removed his arms from the most stunning person ever.
Sure, he’d seen Cole working out before. He’d seen him with his shirt off before. But he’d never seen him sleeping peacefully on Kai’s bed before. Kai snapped a photo before he even realized he’d thought to do so. He had to! His boyfriend was adorable!
Kai thought back on that for a second. They hadn’t really clarified their relationship status last night, had they? He’d have to ask Cole when he woke up. Kai checked the clock, 5:44. Alright, he still had 16 minutes to sleep.
16 minutes until Cole would get up and they’d talk about things.
16 minutes until he probably, officially, got a boyfriend.
Kai couldn’t wait.