Archive of Our Own ^beta

“What’s wrong?”

What a question. It was currently five in the morning. Jay had been sitting at the kitchen counter for a few hours now, and he’d been crying out of frustration for the past fifteen minutes. He loved math, but sometimes the classes he was taking online made him want to never look at a triangle again.

“Studying,” was all he could manage. Kai, who had just walked into the mostly dark room, made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a scoff.

“You’re crying.”

“Thanks for letting me know.” Jay turned back to the papers in front of him. There were wet spots all over the one he was working on.

Kai started pulling things out of the cabinets. “Why’re you up so early to study?”

“Technically, I’m up late, and not early,” Jay replied dryly.

“You mean you’ve been up all night?” Kai glared at him over his shoulder. “You know that won’t help you remember anything, right?”

Jay groaned in annoyance. “I don’t need you to tell me that.”

“Well, I’m going to tell you anyway.” Kai flicked on the stove. “What’re you studying?”

“Why do you ask so many questions?” Jay snapped.

Kai crossed his arms, leaned on the counter, and stared at him, waiting.

Jay sighed. “Fine. I’m studying for my online class. I have a test that’s, like, 50 percent of my grade. And it’s on everything. And I just know I’m going to do awful. I can barely remember half of this stuff, and I’ve been up all night practicing, and it’s not getting any easier. I’m doomed to fail this test and the entire class! Happy?”

Kai shrugged. “Explain it to me.”

“What?”

“Explain the questions to me. It’ll help you understand it if you’re explaining it to someone else.”

Jay raised his eyebrows. “You really want to listen to me talk about math?”

“I mean, if it’ll help you, then it can’t hurt me.” He put a kettle on the stove, then walked around the counter to look at Jay’s papers. He blinked a few times in confusion. “Yeah, none of this makes sense. So explain it.”

Jay stared at him for a moment. “Okay. I guess. Um, the first one is… use the fundamental identities to write the expression in terms of a single trigonometric function. Secant of x over—”

“What’re the fundamental identities?” Kai interrupted.

Jay scowled. “Really?”

Kai shrugged. “Explain them.”

Jay rattled them all off, hesitating only once or twice. “Get it?”

“No,” Kai said. “Tell me what the question means, but without all the fancy words.”

“It means I need to use the shortcuts I just told you about to simplify this equation completely,” Jay explained through clenched teeth. This was going to drive him crazy.

“Okay, so what do you do first?”

Jay explained, doing the problem slower than he would have liked since Kai kept asking questions. Jay had to clarify what a reciprocal identity was about a hundred times.

“So how are those different from inverse functions?”

“Because reciprocals and inverses are different things, Kai. If I have to tell you that one more time, I’m going to lose it.”

By the time 7 AM rolled around, they had worked through the entire packet. Kai still didn’t know what a half angle was, but he had made coffee, which Jay thought made up for it. They were sitting shoulder to shoulder now, drinking coffee while Jay rested his head on top of his notes.

“How come you knew that would work?” he asked Kai. “Explaining the questions out loud, I mean.”

A red flush appeared on Kai’s cheeks. “I do that with Nya sometimes. One of her old teachers used to do it.”

Jay hummed in understanding. “I have a hard time believing Nya ever needed help with school.”

“She didn’t,” Kai replied, sipping his coffee and determinedly avoiding eye contact.

“Oh,” Jay said. Sometimes he forgot that Kai had barely attended school. Occasionally he'd make a joke about only having a first grade education, but that was the most Jay had heard about it.

“Anyway.” Kai stood up and stretched. “Maybe you can ask PIXAL for the ones you couldn’t get.”

“That’s cheating!”

“How?” Kai grinned. “I helped you, why can’t she?”

“That’s like asking AI, Kai.”

“Don’t let her hear you say that.”

Jay laughed. “She’d skin me alive.”

“Who’d skin you alive?” PIXAL had appeared in the doorway, just about giving Jay a heart attack.

“Nothing! Nobody!”

The others started to flood in and in a few minutes, it was so busy in the kitchen Jay almost didn’t notice when Kai slipped out of the room.

“And did you know they call it the Goldilocks Zone? Because of the too-hot-too-cold-just-right thing? Pretty cool, right?”

“Kai, help,” Lloyd whined. “Jay won’t stop talking about space.”

“Rude!” Jay scowled, but he looked up at Kai to see his reaction.

Kai had a small smile on his face. “C’mon, kid, you know you’re just as bad sometimes.”

Lloyd pouted at that. He and Jay were sprawled on the floor in front of the TV, and Kai was sitting on the couch. They had been watching the movie Gravity, which was supposed to be tragic and inspirational, but Jay had started talking ten minutes in and Kai had long since paused it because nobody could pay attention to the actual movie.

Jay, for one, didn’t mind if Lloyd thought he was being annoying. He had spent his whole life being told he was annoying, but the way the other ninja said it didn’t make him feel so bad. It was always joking. It was always after they had let him go crazy for a while. They all understood. Jay just had to let it out sometimes.

Today, though, today he felt like he could physically bounce off the walls. His hands itched to do something. The movie had flicked something on inside of him.

“Do you think I could design a spaceship?” Jay asked, entirely serious. “I don’t think it’s as hard as it sounds. I’ve designed a plane before, it can’t be that different.”

Lloyd laughed. “If you do, you better let me ride in it.”

“I wouldn’t build it, just design it.” He paused. “Well, maybe I could build it. If Master Wu says yes. And if Nya lets me use some of her stuff.”

“She’d probably help you,” replied Lloyd. “Maybe you could make it in the shape of a mech, then you can convince her.”

“But would that be able to breach the atmosphere?” Jay mused. “It has to be, like, pointy.”

“That was very intellectual of you,” Lloyd said, amused. “Pointy. Is that a technical term?”

“Shut up. Hey, do you remember that other space movie that’s also a horror movie?”

“Huh?”

“Okay, maybe not a horror movie. But it was super scientifically accurate, you know? What was that called?”

“I dunno, maybe—”

“Interstellar? Is that it? It’s something fancy. Anyway, they go through wormholes, I think. I want to do that. Maybe it’s like traveling through realms. What if that’s an alternate way to travel realms?”

“That would be cool—”

“What if we could get to the Departed Realm by space travel? That would be creepy. But I guess we’ve seen a lot of creepy things. I kind of want to try it. Except I don’t know how to open a wormhole. My ship would have to be pretty strong. Maybe a mech is a good idea.”

There was a tap on top of his head. Jay looked up. Kai had left the room and came back. He waved a packet of medication in front of Jay’s face.

“What’s that?” Jay asked. “Wait, is that mine?”

“You forgot to take your meds,” Kai said. “See?” He tapped the pill marked ‘Saturday’.

“Oh. Today is Saturday.” Kai nodded. “That’s Saturday’s pill, and today is Saturday, and it’s still there. I didn’t take it.”

“Here.” Kai popped it out and handed it to him. “Do you need water?”

“No,” Jay said, and swallowed the pill dry. “I’ve done that about a thousand times. Probably more. Days in a year times how many years I’ve taken them. 365 times eight. 2,920 times, more or less.”

“Since you forget all the time.” Kai rolled his eyes and sat back down on the couch.

“Yeah, and sometimes I have breaks because I forget to refill them and I miss a few days because of that. And sometimes I skip on purpose because they suck.”

“They do?” Kai’s eyes were fixed on him. It was making Jay sort of nervous, but he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it had something to do with how the corners of Kai’s eyes crinkled as he smiled at Jay. Or maybe he just needed to take his meds.

“Well, most medications have side effects,” Jay said, looking anywhere but Kai’s face. “And I kinda like how I am without them. More energy. More motivation. Most of the time, anyway.”

“Mine make me get headaches sometimes,” Lloyd volunteered.

“I get headaches from thinking too hard,” Jay joked.

“You must get them a lot, then.” Kai poked him in the shoulder.

“Rude!”

“Fuck,” Jay whispered as he dropped his phone on his face.

It fell on the mattress next to him, the bright screen facing straight upward. Scrambling to pick it up, it slid off the side of the bed and clattered to the floor. Five feet down. Jay hated bunk beds.

He sat up slowly, meaning to climb down and get it, but before he can, someone else picked it up, the bright screen illuminating their face. It’s Kai. Of course it’s Kai. Jay was going to get beat up for this.

Kai climbed up the ladder and showed the phone to Jay. “This yours?”

“Yeah,” Jay whispered. “Sorry.”

“Why’re you still up?” Kai whispered back.

“Can’t sleep,” admitted Jay. He had been trying to sleep before, but he got distracted. He always did. He hadn’t slept well for at least a week. “You can go back to bed.”

“You can’t fall asleep when you’re on your phone.”

“Actually, you can. I’ve done it for three nights in a row.”

Kai rubbed his eyes with the heel of his palm. “Okay. Move over.”

“Huh?”

“Move over, I can help.” Kai began to climb into Jay’s bed. “I’m gonna make you sleep. No more phone.” He slid the device onto Jay’s bedside shelf.

“I…” Jay started, but Kai glared at him in the dark. His eyes were glowing slightly in the dark. It was a nice light, like a soft sunbeam. Warm. Pretty.

Jay froze.

“Move over,” Kai repeated, and Jay complied. He didn’t want to think too hard about anything right now, in fear that his mind would wander like that again.

It was hard not to let it, though. Kai was warm, almost too warm. He squeezed next to Jay and threw an arm around him. Was Jay supposed to be normal about this? They were literally spooning. He guessed Kai had done this before, maybe with Nya and Lloyd. He clearly didn’t feel awkward about it. Jay, on the other hand, wasn’t sure he would ever fall asleep with Kai’s breath on his neck.

“How’s this supposed to help?” Jay whispered, shifting around.

“Stop moving,” Kai murmured, right into his ear. His arms tightened around Jay. “I’m warm. Helps people sleep. Lloyd said it was like a weighted blanket.”

So Jay’s guess was right. And, bonus points, Kai’s sleepy voice was really cute.

…Really stupid, he meant. Really, really stupid. Jay really needs to get a grip. It’s just Kai! They’d been friends for years. His brain was probably just making up how intimate this felt.

Kai’s breathing slowed after a few minutes. Jay finally started to relax, and then Kai shifted in his sleep. He pressed his face into Jay’s shoulder and hooked his leg over Jay’s thigh. He was warm, so warm, and surely that was the only reason Jay felt heat creeping up his face.

Yet despite how flustered he felt, Jay found himself falling asleep faster than he had in weeks. When he woke up, he felt perfectly rested, but Kai was gone and the bed was cold again.

“Don’t we need a cart?”

“Nah, it’s only a few things.” Jay inspected Zane’s grocery list. “We can carry them.”

Kai didn’t reply. Jay didn’t know whether Kai had been avoiding him, or the other way around. He sure hadn’t made an effort to speak to the red ninja since the night they shared a bed. It was too awkward. Jay was worried he’d melt into a puddle if Kai brought it up.

But now they were trapped on a grocery run together. There was nothing to make conversation about other than produce. This was about to be the worst shopping experience of Jay’s life.

Or maybe not. When Jay started walking, Kai followed, unusually quiet. When Jay showed him the list, he pointed in the direction they needed to go, silently. Jay couldn’t tell if he was unnerved or relieved. Possibly both. He made up for Kai’s silence by talking too much, as he always did. It was a good plan.

“Here’s the bread aisle.”

“Take this.”

“Zane wants whole milk.”

“Carry this?”

“It’s this way.”

“Here you go.”

All while Kai trailed along without a word. Jay tried not to look at him. It made his face unnecessarily red

It was only near the end of their trip that Jay realized he wasn’t carrying anything. All he had was the list.

“Are we missing something?” Jay asked, turning to Kai.

“I don’t think so,” Kai replied, finally speaking for the first time since they walked in. “It sure feels like we have everything.”

Jay’s eyes went wide.

“Do you train for carrying shit or something?!” Jay scrambled to take anything he could out of the mountainous pile of groceries in Kai’s arms. He was holding every single item they had picked up. “Why didn’t you ask me to carry some of these?”

Kai shrugged now that he was free of half the groceries. “It’s fine, I can carry them.”

“But…”

“Jay, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Kai gave him a small smile. Jay was suddenly aware of how close Kai was standing. He took a step back, and Kai’s smile slipped off his face.

“I— yeah— okay. I’m sorry. I should’ve been paying attention, that’s all.” He turned and started to walk. His face felt like it was on fire. “That’s everything on the list, so we can go.”

“Jay, wait—” Jay turned back so abruptly Kai nearly ran into him. “I, uh…”

“What?” Jay asked. His voice cracked. Crawling into a hole and dying seemed like a really good idea.

Kai stared at him for a moment, his face unreadable.

“…We forgot the butter.”

“So, how’s life as a ninja?”

“Oh, you know…” Jay laughed nervously. “It’s good.”

Ryna grinned. “Sure. Back breaking work every day, nearly dying every week…”

“It’s not much different from the junkyard,” joked Jay.

Ryna cackled at that. She always had the loudest laugh. Jay used to envy her for being the center of attention, back when they were kids and the attention was coming from other dumb eight year olds. He tried to copy her once she had left boarding school, but he was always too anxious to be as loud and sincere as her.

It had been over ten years since he had seen Ryna.

She looked much the same as she did when they were younger. With less dirt and grime, but she wasn’t working in the junkyard anymore. Jay was sure he didn’t look the same. Neither of them mentioned it.

“Well, I’m sure it can’t be too hard, considering your teammates,” Ryna said with a wink. “The black ninja looks like he could pack a punch, huh? What’s his name?”

“That’s classified,” Jay replied, trying to pass it off as a joke.

“Sure, sure.” Ryna waved as if to brush the topic aside. She came dangerously close to knocking the kettle of tea off the table they were sitting at. She hadn’t touched her cup. “Does that mean I don’t get to come see all the secret ninja rooms?”

“You’re lucky Master Wu even let you in the courtyard.”

Ryna laughed again. “You got funny, Jay. It could pass as your profession, honestly.”

“Ha… what?”

“You’re on the scrawny side.” Ryna shrugged. “All the others I’ve seen pass through here are, well… kind of ripped.”

“And?” Jay felt his face burn with embarrassment and prayed it wasn’t visible. “Brute strength isn’t the only way to solve a problem.”

“Yeah, but Jay,” Ryna said seriously, leaning forward in her seat. “You’re not just solving problems, dude. You’re an honest-to-goodness ninja. I mean, do they carry you on their backs or something?”

“That’s— what— no— I—” Jay spluttered.

“Hey,” came a voice from behind him. Jay turned to look, and, boy, did Kai look pissed. “Only I’m allowed to make fun of him. Don’t assume I can’t kick your ass out of here.”

He made eye contact with Jay and gave the tiniest, most subtle nod, as if to say, Go for it. Screw being a good host. Then he turned and walked off as if nothing had happened.

“Woah,” said Ryna, laughing slightly. “Didn’t mean to upset your boyfriend. Jeez.”

“He’s not my boyfriend, Ryna.”

“Then why’s he on my case?” She stirred her tea, licked the spoon, and made a face of disgust.

Jay rolled his eyes. “Because he’s not an eight year old. Or someone with the humor of one.”

Ryna blanched.

“And, for the record, he’s ‘kind of ripped’ and has some anger issues he still needs to sort out, so I’d back off if I were you.” He laughed, in the way that makes people uncomfortable to defend themselves, in the way Ryna herself always laughed at him.

“Ha, yeah,” Ryna replied quickly. “Don’t want to pick a fight with a ninja, right?”

“Right.” Jay sipped his tea. “We’re known for being silent killers.”

“Kai? Are you up?”

There was no answer. Jay knocked on the door again, worried.

It was well past noon and all of the ninja, excluding Kai and Jay, had tagged along on a police investigation. Jay had his big final test for his math class this morning, which was why he stayed behind. All he knew about Kai was that he didn’t get up when he usually did, so everyone automatically left him alone. If Kai wasn’t on schedule, something was wrong.

Jay’s first instinct was to leave him alone, but whatever instict controlled loneliness was much stronger. It had been hours since he had seen another human being, and he was still slightly shaken from the test. He wanted to talk to someone.

Unfortunately, Kai didn’t seem to want to talk. Finally, after a few more knocks and calling of names, Jay opened the door slowly.

The room was mostly tidy, the work of Zane. The only bed that was unmade was Kai’s, the lower bunk on the bunk closest to the door. In fact, the only thing still on the bed was his pillow. Everything else was on the floor.

Jay sighed and went to go pick the bedding up. Maybe Kai was in the bathroom. He could definetly smell something in there. But before he could step closer, the bedding moved.

Jay tensed up, preparing for something or someone to jump out at him, but the suprise never came. Instead, he heard a low groan from the mess of bedding.

“Kai?” Jay asked, incredulous.

Another groan, filled with pain.

“First Spinjitzu Master,” Jay cursed. “Are you dying?”

Kai let out a whine of agreement. The bedding moved again, and then Jay could see his face.

He looked… bad. To say the least. His face was a sickly hue and his hair was sticking up everywhere. Swaddled in his red bedding, he looked like a newborn baby. If the baby was on the verge of throwing up. Jay recoiled despite himself.

“‘M sorry,” Kai slurred, and rolled right back over.

“No, no, I just didn’t expect you to look so… sick!” Jay kneeled next to him and reached out to feel his forehead.

“No!” Kai hid his face under his sheet.

“What? Why?” Jay could hear his voice getting softer, but he ignored it. Just his instincts betraying him again, nothing new.

Muffled, Kai explained, “Too hot.”

The story of Kai’s life, Jay supposed.

“Well, you’re buried in blankets, that’s probably making it worse.” Jay grabbed the corner of the bedding and pulled a little. Kai’s face was revealed again. He looked up at Jay with watery eyes.

“Not me. I’m cold.”

“Make up your mind, Kai. Too hot or too cold?”

Suddenly, Kai sat up and lurched toward Jay, throwing his arms around him. Where his face came in contact with Jay’s neck, it felt like a hot iron was being pressed against him.

“Jeez, Kai— you’re—” Jay tried to detach him, but Kai only clung on tighter.

“I’m sorry, Jay,” he rambled. “I’m sorry, I interrupted your test and it’s really important and you’ll fail if you do bad. I tried really hard to be quiet. I closed the door and everything. I tried. I promise. I’m sorry—”

“What are you on about?” Jay slowly leaned forward and lowered Kai’s head onto his lap. He had to literally peel Kai’s arms from around him. “My test finished, like, an hour ago. And I didn’t hear anything.”

Kai put a hand over his eyes. “Oh, good. Good, good. Because, you know, if I had been loud it would have been my fault that you got a bad grade. I don’t want you to fail. I think you’re good at triangles, Jay, I really do. They shouldn’t fail you just for a test.”

Jay wasn’t sure what to say. There was a lot to dissect there, even without Kai’s interesting use of the word triangle.

“Jay?” Kai peeked out from under his hand.

“You remembered the stuff about my test?” was all Jay could come up with.

“I’m not that stupid.”

Jay laughed. There was still a bit of normal Kai still in there, thank the Master.

Kai hid his eyes again. “You think I’m stupid.”

“No, no, I don’t,” Jay said, smiling. “I think you’re really smart.”

“Ugh…” Kai rolled off of Jay’s lap and back into his bedding pile. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what?” Jay teased. “Say you’re smart? Really, really smart?”

“Yeah,” Kai said, but it was more of a whisper. “That.”

Jay rolled him back over by the shoulder. Kai glared up at him from his lap.

“Don’t be mad,” Jay cooed, enjoying how Kai’s face only seemed to get redder.

A single tear trickled out of the corner of Kai’s eye and ran down his cheek into his ear.

“Don’t be sad, either!” Jay protested, but the tears only multiplied. Soon Kai’s face was soaked with tears. Jay frantically dabbed at his face with a sheet.

“I’m not mad,” Kai whispered, grabbing the sheet from Jay and scrubbing at his face with it.

“I know, I know!” Jay wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen Kai cry. This weird swing of emotions was becoming a little bit funny. Maybe a lot.

“I can’t be mad,” Kai confessed tearfully. “You’re… you’re…”

“Me? I’m?”

Kai gave a small sob. “You’re too pretty to be mad at! I hate it! It makes my life so difficult!”

Jay stared at him. “What?”

Kai looked at him as seriously as he could with his hair sticking straight out at the sides. Tears were still leaking out of his eyes, but he seemed to have forgotten that he was sad.

“You are extremely pretty, Jay. It makes my brain feel fuzzy, and that’s a problem, because it won’t run correctly when it’s fuzzy and I don’t know how to fix it ‘cuz I’m not as smart as you.”

Here he gave an exaggerated sniff.

“You need to stop, or else I’m going to go crazy. And then I’m going to listen to my fuzzy brain, and that’s bad.”

“What does it tell you to do?” Jay managed.

“My fuzzy brain?”

“Y… Yeah…?”

Kai’s face, amazingly, got redder. “…Stuff. Stuff you’d probably hate. Like going to restaurants. And flowers. And public displays of affection. You’d hate that.”

“Oh,” Jay said.

Kai sighed and closed his eyes. “I should be quiet again. It’s better when I’m quiet. Things don’t go horribly wrong.”

“Kai—”

“Nope.” Kai sat up abruptly. He swayed slightly. “No. Don’t say anything. I’m going to take a bath. Don’t worry if I never come out of there. It’s better that way.”

Jay watched as he struggled to his feet and stumbled to the attached bathroom. When he opened the door, the stench of vomit reached Jay’s nose.

“Ew,” he heard Kai say. “Past-Kai did not flush the toilet.”

Then came the sound of the toilet flushing, then the sound of the bath faucet. A long sigh. The bath faucet turning off. A couple swear words. Then silence.

Jay sat stone still for a good thirty seconds. In those thirty seconds, he did some very intelligent problem solving.

Kai had been purposely being nice and helpful to him for a while now. Maybe a few weeks. For Kai, that was open display of affection. Jay knew this to be true because Lloyd read a book on love languages once and assigned everybody a language. Kai’s was “acts of service”. Which was exactly what he had been doing for Jay. And now Kai had basically just told Jay that he wants to take him on dates.

Shit.

So, no biggie, Kai was in love with him. Nothing to freak out about.

Jay got up from the floor and bundled Kai’s bedding in his arms. He carried it to the laundry room, dumped it in the wash, and hit go. Then he walked back, contemplating his existence a little on the way, and took his own sheets of his bed. He put them on Kai’s instead.

Finally, he faced the bathroom door. He wasn’t convinced Kai hadn’t drowned already. When he tried the door, it was unlocked.

“Kai, I’m coming in,” he announced, then threw the door open. He was met with a face full of blistering heat and a whole lot of steam.

Kai had not drowned, luckily. He had, however, turned the bath into a hot tub. His whole body was submerged except for his head, neck, and shoulders. The water was bubbling and steaming. Kai looked quite miserable.

“I missed you,” was the first thing he said to Jay.

“…You did?”

Kai nodded solemnly.

“I missed you, too,” Jay replied. Kai took a sudden interest in the wall.

“Do you think you can get out on your own?” Jay asked, determinedly following his plan.

“Yeah,” Kai confirmed, then without a second’s hesitation, started to get out.

Jay turned away so fast he nearly got whiplash. “I’ll get you clothes.”

He hurried out of the bathroom and dug around in Kai’s dresser drawers until he found pajama pants, boxers, and a large shirt he was pretty sure belonged to Cole. Not anymore, apparently. When he turned around again, Kai was standing in the doorway to the bathroom, looking like he was unsure of what to do next.

Jay handed the clothes to Kai, then turned so he could change.

“How come you switched our beds?” Kai asked.

“I just put my bedding on your bed,” Jay explained. “Your stuff is in the wash. Are you done changing?”

“Yeah,” Kai said quietly. He was still staring at the bed when Jay looked at him.

Jay was impressed with how much healthier Kai looked just from a bath. His skin had almost returned to normal, he looked much more alive, and best of all, his hair wasn’t sticking directly upward anymore. It fell past his jaw and was uneven where it was cut to be a mullet. Even so, it looked good. Jay wondered if he could convince Kai to let his hair down more often. It was darker wet, too. Almost black. There was a drop of water dripping down his temple from his hairline. Jay reached over and wiped it away.

Kai looked at him. His eyes, though tired, still gave the same warm light they always did. Warm. Pretty.

“What?” Kai asked.

“Your eyes are pretty,” Jay said without hesitation.

Kai made a sound like he was being strangled.

Jay laughed. “What?!”

“Nothing.”

“You’re staring.”

“So are you!”

Jay blushed. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

“…I’m pissed that I’m sick right now.”

“Why?”

Kai looked at the floor. “Nevermind. You ask too many questions.” He shuffled to the bed and fell face first onto it.

“Sure, Kai, sure.” Jay sat next to him. “Are you still out of it right now?”

“I dunno. Maybe. Hopefully not. That bath would have killed anyone else.” Kai flipped over on his back and looked at him. “Why?”

“You ask too many questions,” Jay said, and leaned down to kiss him.

(He gets sick a few days later. Kai doesn’t seem to mind taking care of him in the slightest.)