Chapter Text
Multiple hours pass, and the sun slowly starts to rise quite early. It's a beautiful September this year. The colours of the sun making the leaves of the trees glow in a beautiful light. The red ones always reminded Cinder of Kai. It's probably why he recently started hating fall. He didn't want to love Kai. He was his enemy. They were supposed to hate each other, not have one of them fall for the other. Once again, he dreamt of the trees. He did ever since he saw their leaves in the beautiful sunset. And once again, he dreamt about Kai, talking with him under those exact trees, picking flowers for him, kissing him under those exact trees. Cinder just wanted to hold the ninja in his arms under those trees, run his hands through his dark brown, fluffy-looking hair, laughing for hours on end with him.
Suddenly, Cinder snapped out of it. He wasn't in the warm embrace of the afternoon sun anymore. He was back in Kai's bed, and the ninja still cuddled up to him on top of him. He, of course, liked the embrace and warmth of the ninja in his bed. Wait-- no, he LOVED it. But there was something more calming having the ninja in his arms under those trees instead of a simple bed with two blankets on them. Cinder didn't want to wake up yet, so they decided to try and fall asleep again, burying their face into the ninjas' hair and taking in his scent to calm themselves down. The elemental master of smoke tried for a few minutes, slightly shifting around as their attempts didn't work out. Once they gave up fully, Cinder tried to wiggle themselves out of the bed under Kai, making sure the ninja wouldn't wake up. After a few minutes, he finally managed to slip out, almost falling onto the floor and hitting his head. Cinder then quickly hushed out of the room, leaving the ninja behind with a frown. "I didn't even get to say goodbye.." he sighed to himself.
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Hours later, Kai slowly stirred awake multiple times, going back to sleep right again each time. After the 6th try of him trying to wake up, he finally opened his eyes, a bright beam of light blinding him, forcing him to squeeze his eyes together with a grunt. "Stupid.. sun.." he grumbled out quietly as he rolled around in his bed, trying to find a spot that wasn’t embraced by the bright light of the sun. He rolled around, eventually falling off of his bed, onto the floor. “Ow..” he tiredly muttered out as he finally noticed what was going on. Kai slowly stood up from the floor, flopping back onto his bed right after. After a few more minutes of trying to sleep on further, he finally managed to get up and wake up from his groggy state, crawling out of his bed and walking to the bathroom to get ready. After a small groan of tiredness, the ninja turned on the water, filling the bowl he made with his hands and splashing the water over this face, doing this multiple times until he finally came to his senses. As all of his senses properly kicked in, he noticed how he smelled like cigarettes. Kai was sure he didn't smoke any yesterday, though. Well, he might've late at night because everything after his nightmare was just fog built up in his brain. He was trying hard to focus but just couldn't remember anything. Giving up, Kai walked out of the bathroom, getting ready by putting in a comfy oversized t-shirt that had text on it saying "I <3 your mom." with some casual dark blue shorts. He then put the usual amount of hair gel into his hair, styling it to perfection and making sure it stays that way before putting on a good amount of eyeliner. Later, he tiredly slumped out of his room, walking to get breakfast with the other ninjas.
As he pushed open the door and walked in, slumping tiredly into his seat, he grabbed two slices of crispy toast Zane had cooked up in a pan a few moments ago, the inside soft as he noticed by squishing the middle shortly. He then put in various different things such as tomatoes, bacon, some pieces of lettuce for some crunch topped by a fried egg whose egg yolk was runny and creamy, and some slices of his favourite cheese that he asked Zane to melt so it'd be gooey and smooth.
Zane started his daily conversation with a classic, "Good morning, Kai," giving the other ninja a soft smile to greet him further.
"Hi, Zane," Kai tiredly replied, followed by a soft yawn.
"Would you like some orange juice?" The nindroid continued on their conversation, holding out a jug full of orange juice.
"Thanks, I'm good.." Kai replied in a mutter, standing up and making himself a cup of coffee and a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and mini marshmallows.
Almost a minute later, both Nya and Lloyd walked in moments after eachother.
"Sup, bro. Hi, Zane!" Nya happily greeted both of them, pushing her hair out of her face and sitting down next to Kai's seat.
Lloyd simply greeted all three of them, trying not to make such a big entrance and just sat down opposite of Nya.
"Hey Nya, would you mind turning on the TV for some background noise?" Zane asked almost right after, Nya doing as he asked.
"Just don't put on one of your stupid shows like Bad Omen, Arcade or whatever they're called," Kai scoffed out right after, shortly glaring at Nya from the other side of the room.
"First off, they're called Good Omens and Arcane, and second, I didn't even intend to turn one of those on," Nya replied in a quick witted tone, Kai just scoffing at her snarky reply.
The water ninja them turned on the TV, putting on the news channel as background noise.
Almost right after, Kai sat back down next to Nya, giving her a small nudge before putting down his coffee and hot chocolate, beginning to eat his toast.
Only mere moments later, Cole crashed into the room. "Ay yo-yo yo-yo-yo!! What time is it? Showtime!"
"Cole, you're acting like you're already drunk. And it's nine in the morning," Lloyd quietly sighed with a small laugh, lowering his head and shaking it lightly.
"Something smells smokey.. burnt, even.. Like cigarettes," Lloyd mentioned after a few moments of silently eating with the others. Immediately, everybody's heads turned towards Kai. He was known for his constant yapping about wanting to quit smoking, but eventually relapsing over and over.
"I SWEAR it isn't me this time! Well, yes, the smell does come from me, but I'm like 70% sure I didn't smoke yesterday! I've been clean for a month and a half, and yall know that!" Kai quietly ushered back at their stares. "I don't know how the smell got to me either, okay!?" He added right after, crossing his arms over his chest with a huff before returning to eating, only small chewing sounds coming from him.
A few minutes later, small conversations between some of the ninjas evolved, Kai beginning to just bicker around with Lloyd and Cole, Nya having an in-depth conversation with Zane about some past events.
Around an hour or two pass, most ninjas returning back to their rooms, Kai staying behind to help Zane with the dishes like he sometimes did.
"Are you ready for a round of Mario Kart later?" Kai asked in a challenging tone.
"By calculating, my chances of winning today are quite high, so yes." Zane replied after a moment of silence.
"You and your stupid chances and percentages.." Kai then snickered before the room fell into silence again.
After they finished, they both said their goodbye's and walked back into their rooms, Kai immediately throwing himself back into his bed and chilling on social media for a few hours, trying to recall the events that happened yesterday.