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Kai liked to think of himself as a good older brother. In any case, he was good enough (or had grown up scared enough) to never put his phone on silent, and when Nya called him at two in the morning, he answered.
Before he could even ask what was wrong, she said, the words falling together in her rush to get them out, "I have to break up with Jay. I can't do this anymore, I have to break up with him. If anyone could have- have made it happen- but he didn't, so I have to-"
"Woah," Kai said, not for the first time, but this time he was loud enough to make her falter. "Slow down. What are you talking about?"
"Did you not hear me? I have to break up with Jay!"
Kai yawned, sat up, and waved his hand blindly in the dark until he found the lamp. "Right. Ok. Why?" He'd always been a bit iffy about their relationship, because while he loved them both, he wasn't sure they were great for each other, and he knew he would always take Nya's side but he didn't want to have to.
He tried not to let all of this bleed into his voice when he asked again, "Why do you think you have to, Nya?"
She was silent for a few seconds longer before she said, "Never mind. It doesn't make sense. Good night."
It took him a moment to realize that she'd hung up, and he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and called her back. She picked up on the first ring.
"Nya," he said, "if it's something Jay did, you can tell me." He knew Jay well enough to know he'd never hurt Nya on purpose, but he also knew Jay well enough to know that he was a bit of an idiot.
"No," Nya said, sharply enough that Kai almost thought she was going to deny everything and hang up again, but she continued, "It's my fault. There's something wrong with me, and I don't know what, but I can't-" She stopped.
And, well, he knew Nya well enough to know she'd never hurt Jay on purpose, but he also knew Nya well enough to know that she was a stubborn ass.
"If you messed up, don't break up with him over it. Talk about it. Make him break up with you, if he has to, but don't get in your head about it." See? He could give good advice sometimes.
Nya laughed tearfully, a broken sound that set off all of his overprotective brother alarms. "You don't understand. I can't be what he wants me to be."
"Yeah? And what's that?"
"What do you think, Kai?!" He could hear rustling on the other end, and he imagined that she was standing up and walking around, as she tended to do when she had too much nervous energy and didn't know what to do about it. "He likes me. Like, likes me. And I- I don't like him like that. I can't like him like that. I thought that if there was anyone who could make me feel that way, it would be him, but he can't. So I have to break up with him."
Kai blinked, and wished he wasn't sitting on the edge of his bed, miles away from Nya, for this conversation. If they were in person, he would reassure her with hugs and suggest that he make her hot chocolate, but now, he had nothing but words, and he didn't know which ones to use.
After he'd been silent for too long, Nya said, subdued, "Does that make sense?"
To him, it did not. But he'd learned long ago that there were a lot of things about Nya that he didn't understand, and he didn't have to understand her to support her.
"It's two in the morning," he said. "You should sleep."
"I don't want to sleep," she whined, and he smiled, reminded of when she was young and pretended to fight against him, imitating independence, even as she did her damned best to help him in whatever way she could.
"Sleep. Tomorrow I'll come by and we can talk, ok? I can't stop you from talking to Jay-" they'd gotten into enough fights about Kai's urge to control their relationship for him to know that much- "but I don't think you should until you know what you want to say. Alright?"
There was a prolonged sigh on the other end, until Nya finally gave in. "Alright."
"You ok for now?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
"Night, Nya."
Kai liked to think of himself as a good older brother, but sue him, he also loved to sleep. So he postponed his older brother duties for a few hours, and crawled back into bed.