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The next day, Sensei Wu found himself meditating as usual. As his session wrapped up, he suddenly got an idea.
“Zane? Do you work tonight?”
“No. Why do you ask?”
“Can you gather everyone in here?”
“...sure?”
Zane reluctantly followed their father’s instruction. And as the team piled into Wu’s sacred meditation room, a sly smile crept over the Sensei’s face.
“I want a change of pace tonight. We spend way too much time crammed in here, scrolling on our phones. That changes tonight.”
“What do you mean?” Jay asked.
“On my walk earlier today, I found a nice patch of woods. Not only is it fairly close to the park, but there’s also a gorgeous view of the mountain. I figured that tonight, we will take a hike as a family and have a little picnic.”
Kai began to groan, but Cole smacked the back of his head to shut him up.
“That sounds great, Sensei!”
“I’m glad you agree, Cole.”
Cole nodded and left. Zane stood up not too long after and made their way to the kitchen.
“I’ll make dinner.”
“Let me help!”
Lloyd jumped straight up and followed Zane to the kitchen. In time, everyone else filed out of the room and piled into the kitchen to see what Zane and Lloyd were whipping up for this little adventure.
While Lloyd rummaged through the pantry for snacks and drinks, Zane focused on the main course. First: Individually wrapped sandwiches, each made to the specific taste of the team member it was intended for.
“Ok… Kai likes turkey and swiss with that organic mustard. Jay likes Uncrustables, but we don’t have those… I can make them. Cole likes roast beef on kaiser with au jus and pickled jalapenos. Nya has been wanting a vegetarian bhan mi, but with fish sauce drizzled on top. I can do that. Sensei likes a simple grilled cheese with a slice of tomato... Lloyd?”
“What’s up, Mom?”
“What kind of sandwich do you want?”
“Nutella and marshmallow fluff!”
“I can do that on the side. But I would prefer it if you had a more balanced sandwich for your main dinner.”
Lloyd rolled his eyes, but slammed down a jar of crunchy peanut butter on the counter.
“This and that strawberry jam, please.”
“Of course.”
Zane focused on finishing up the sandwiches as Lloyd ran around packing up baskets for everyone. With the sandwiches finished, Zane then started on a dessert-themed charcuterie board as the final touch. As Zane cooked for everyone else, Nya snuck into the fridge to grab something for Zane.
“This.”
She pulled out a pumpkin spice flavored protein shake and set it in Zane’s outdoor bag. With everyone packed and with meals ready to go, they scurried off the Destiny’s Bounty and headed off into the woods.
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The hike could have been better. Snafu #1 came when Kai’s cell phone signal cut out. His frustration caused a lull in the trek, as Cole had to fall behind to calm Kai down.
“Breathe with me.”
Kai reluctantly complied. With him calmer, he just shut his phone down and stomped back to keep pace with the team.
“Whatever…”
As Kai caught up, Jay began to falter. He began to moan and gripe about how much his feet hurt, and Zane stepped back to meet Jay at his pace.
“Would you like me to carry you?”
“Sure…”
Zane nodded and hoisted Jay onto their back. Doing this caused their injured arm to move in a way they didn’t expect, but they ignored the pain and caught back up with the team.
“PLEASE tell me we’re almost there…”
They passed the halfway mark right as Jay uttered this whine. Zane sighed to themself and managed to keep pace with the rest of the team. At some point, Lloyd dropped his water bottle and looked at Zane with worry.
“Do you need a break?”
“I drank too much water…”
“I’ll stay!”
Cole ushered Lloyd away, motioning to the rest of the team to not wait up for them. Nya just picked up the youngster’s water bottle and set it in her bag’s extra pocket. She soon found her footing at the front of the huddle, setting the pace alongside Wu.
“Nya? WAIT!”
Lloyd ran up to catch up to Nya, and Cole just walked at Zane’s side.
“How did you get up there so fast?”
“I just know how to pace myself.”
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“We’re here!”
Wu pulled back a brush of trees, revealing the perfect picnic spot. Everyone looked on in awe, especially as the sun began to set in front of them.
“Wow…”
Jay climbed down from Zane’s back, grabbing the blanket from his bag for everyone to sit down on. Zane soon followed, setting out everybody’s share of food. As the others settled into their spots and began eating, Zane sat next to Wu with a heated thermos.
“Tea?”
“Of course.”
Zane pulled out a bag of herbal tea and let it brew. As that settled, Nya pulled the shake from her bag and threw it in Zane’s direction.
“Heads up!”
Zane caught the bottle without even opening it and began sipping at it. Wu soon fixed his tea to his liking, while still savoring his grilled cheese.
“This is wonderful. Thank you, Zane.”
“You’re welcome.”
Everyone else ate rather quickly, and soon began fighting over the dessert board.
“Cole, save some chocolate cashews for the rest of us!”
“As long as you give everyone a mint!”
“NEVER!”
Zane shied away from the chaos, instead directing their attention to the sun setting behind the glorious Shintaro mountain.
“I wonder what Ivory City is like.”
“You would like it, I think.”
Wu handed Zane the thermos of brewed tea. Zane took the tiniest sip, but soon handed it to Wu and focused more on their own shake.
“We have some back on the Bounty. I’ll make a cup before bed.”
“If you say so.”
As the dessert board dwindled down, Nya snuggled next to Jay. They both found the finishing sunset comforting, and Jay finally found himself to feel relaxed.
“We need more nights like this.”
“I know…”
Kai laid down, finally able to focus on just the sunset settling into a tranquil autumn night. Normally, he would have used this time to mindlessly scroll on his phone or video call his friends. But tonight, that didn’t feel necessary.
“This is nice…”
=====================================================================
“The Bounty is 10 minutes out. Everyone pack up and follow me.”
The team groaned, but did follow Cole’s instruction. Zane cleared up the used dishes and folded up Jay’s blanket as the others threw their garbage away and refilled their water bottles.
“Wait, Zane?”
Zane looked over to Cole, and the master of Earth could quickly tell that something was wrong. The master of Ice held their left arm in pain, their fingers curled up in tense pain as they rubbed their shoulder.
“I’ll carry you down. You need a break.”
Zane wanted to protest, but couldn’t seem to find the words. They just nodded and climbed onto Cole’s back, settling into a relaxed position.
“Are we all ready to go?”
With a thumbs-up from everyone on the team, they began their downward descent towards the Destiny’s Bounty. Zane unexpectedly fell asleep against Cole’s warmth, clearly relaxed and at ease. Cole chuckled and rubbed Zane’s cheek as soon as he realized.
“We’re almost home. And you can get straight to bed.”
Once they did finally make it to the ship, Cole kept true to his word. He laid Zane down in their assigned bunk and snuck off to make a cup of herbal tea. As Zane woke up again, they quickly found their school laptop and loaded up an extra credit assignment.
“I’ll do this and then get ready for bed.”
When Cole returned with the tea, he found Zane hard at work on their assignment. He sighed again and handed Zane the mug of tea, opting to sit next to them and see what exactly had their attention.
“That looks interesting.”
“It actually is.”
They finished the assignment as Cole watched in awe, fascinated with his partner’s intelligence and wit.
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Meanwhile, in the living room, things were equally calm. Nya settled on the couch, bag of Hot Cheetos in one hand and the remote in the other. As she scrolled through Paramount+ to find a new show to watch, Lloyd sat next to her with a game loaded on Kai’s phone.
“Kai’s showering, so he let me have this.”
“...I never see Kai without his phone. Good for him.”
Wu settled into his recliner with a new thermos of lavender tea. He reveled in the newfound peace among the team, sighing to himself as the smell of lavender began to lull him to sleep.
“An absolute success. Tonight was just what we needed.”