Chapter Text
Cooking was one of the only chores that wasn’t attached to a specific ninja. Some nights it was a free-for-all of grabbing anything available between training sessions. Some nights long missions lead to ordering in pizza. However, every now and again the responsibility of cooking would land on one of them.
Tonight, Nya had insisted on testing out a new recipe. It was a stew thing that Kai didn’t quite get from her vague description, but he was happy enough to hang around in the kitchen with her as she stirred various pots. He would always light up with pride when his sister would cook. It reminded him that he actually did manage to raise her in some ways. She could read, she could write and she could cook: three things Kai patted himself on the back for.
Nya rushed from counter to counter chopping different vegetables and tasting different liquids. After taking a sip from one pot she shouted over to where Kai was leaning in the doorway, “Could you grab me some chilli flakes?”
Kai straightened and headed over to the pantry, “Yes, chef.” He scanned the shelves, quickly finding the ingredient and walking it back over to Nya.
“Thanks.” She took it, adding a few pinches to the meal, “Could you also grab that blue tray and bring it here? You will need some-”
Before she could finish her sentence Kai was already grabbing the dish and walking over to her.
Nya dropped what she was doing, “Kai! That is hot!”
Kai looked down at the contents of the tray, getting a face full of steam. He put it down quickly as Nya continued to fuss.
“I just took that out of the oven! How did you not notice?” She reached to grab his hands, checking them for burns. His palms were red and irritated.
Kai didn’t try to fight her grasp, knowing it was easier to go with her on this, “Heat doesn’t bother me. Master of fire, remember.”
“Tell that to the burns on your hands, Kai!” She dragged him over to a sink. Nya started the tap allowing cold water to run over the wounds.
“Okay. I mean I’m not immune, it just… doesn’t bother me.”
Nya crossed her arms, exasperated, “So what? You just go around burning yourself all the time?”
“I don’t know, Nya! I just… it doesn’t bother me. I’m so hot all the time that I guess I don’t notice the temperature of other hot things.” He shrugged, “It’s fine.”
“It’s obviously not fine! What if-”
Kai cut her off, “Please, Nya. You don’t have to worry about this. It’s my problem.” He pulled his hands out from under the water, shaking them dry. He ignored the girl’s protests, “I’m gonna go get the first aid kit. I can deal with this myself. You just keep cooking.”
Nya pouted in response.
Kai reassured her as he left the room, “Really, Nya, it’s fine. It doesn’t even hurt.”
Kai entered his shared bedroom with the intention of heading straight to the bathroom and the first aid kit they kept above the sink. He had expected to find it empty as the shouting of three boys playing video games had been echoing through the corridors. Unfortunately, with the now permanent addition of a certain green ninja he had forgotten that three voices would leave someone unaccounted for.
Cole was sat on his bed scribbling into his sketchbook (technically it wasn’t a sketchbook, just a notepad that Wu gave them to take lesson notes in, but who cares). The Master of Earth acknowledged Kai as he walked in, “You alright, dude- woah! What happened to your hands?”
Kai sighed, “Picked up a hot tray whilst helping Nya cook. It’s worse than it looks.”
“I’m glad, because it looks pretty bad." Cole closed his book and swung his legs over the edge of his bunk, “You want any help patching it up.”
“I’m fine.” Kai was starting to lose patience. He could handle himself, why couldn’t people understand that.
Cole put his hands up in a mock surrender, “Alright, but if you change your mind…”
Kai just nodded and continued heading to the bathroom. He pulled the first aid kit out from the upper shelf and sat on the toilet. He laid the kit out on his lap, searching through it for burn cream and gauze. Once he found it, he applied the white paste to his palms. His hands felt stiff and kind of sticky, but not painful just yet. He had done this enough time to know that the pain was on its way.
His hands shook as he attempted to bandage them up. It made applying the gauze a struggle. Nothing seemed to stay in the right place or be pulled tight enough. On one attempt he dropped the roll and watched it unravel across the floor. He followed it with his eyes as it hit someone's foot.
Cole was standing in the entry watching the ed ninja’s struggle. He bent down picking up the roll. Kai reached out to grab the bandages back. Instead of handing it over Cole sat down on the floor in front of Kai.
Kai raised an eyebrow, “What are you-”
“Give me your hands.”
Kai didn’t.
“Kai.” Cole warned.
Kai gave in, reaching out to Cole. The black ninja took Kai’s hands in his own, beginning to wrap them, “I thought you were immune to fire.”
“It’s… not that simple.”
“We have time.” Cole prompted him to continue.
“I’m not immune. I can still get burnt and stuff. I mean now that I've unlocked my true potential I definitely get burnt less. I guess it built up my immunity or something.”
“So you use that as an excuse to go around picking up hot dishes.” Cole joked.
“I didn’t pick it up on purpose, okay. Well, no, I did pick it up on purpose, I just didn’t know that it was hot.” Kai sighed, “My body temperature is naturally high so sometimes if something is hot-”
“-You don’t notice?”
“Exactly.”
“No wonder you can handle Sensei Wu’s tea then. I swear you both drink them while they are still boiling.”
“That must be why my throat always tingles after. I just thought I was allergic or something.”
Cole chuckled, “I can’t believe we haven’t noticed this before.”
“Well it isn’t like I’ve brought it up.” Kai shrugged.
“You should’ve.” For the first time, Cole looked away from his injured hands and into his eyes, “Like I said, you don’t have to deal with this kind of stuff alone. We are here for you.”
“I know, but I don’t need babying-”
“This isn’t babying. This is caring.” Cole had finished wrapping Kai's hands, but he didn’t let go, “How would you feel if Nya did this? If she just let herself get hurt over and over again, then went to lick her wounds by herself.”
“I’m not Nya. This is completely different. She is a kid.”
“So are you. We all are.” Cole looked at his lap, “Sometimes… I think that Sensei Wu forgets that. So we have to look out for each other."
“I'm one of the eldest, okay. It’s my job to look out for everyone. If everyone spends all their time looking after me, who is going to look after Lloyd?”
“You can’t look out for Lloyd if you are hurt all the time.” Kai started to argue, but Cole continued, “Listen… I don’t really know about your life before you became a ninja- and that is okay. You will tell us when you are ready, but… I know that you raised Nya. And you did the best you could and you only had Nya to look out for you and you didn’t let her because you think being a couple years older than her means that you weren’t a kid as well and-” Cole took a breathe, “What I'm trying to say is that you aren’t alone anymore. We all love Nya and will look out for her. And Sensei Wu is here so you don’t have to be the adult. So let us help you, Kai.”
Kai stared into the boy's eyes, ignoring how his own were welling with tears. “Okay.” Kai forced out in a hushed tone.
Cole stood, pulling Kai up with him. He found his arms around Kai’s shoulders in a tight hug. Kai buried his head into the crook of Cole’s neck.
For the first time in a while Kai let himself relax.
Nya was safe.
Cole had his back.
He wasn’t alone anymore.