Chapter Text
The low hum of the summer wind outside the monastery was a familiar lullaby, a sound that meant peace. But for some, tonight, it felt like a backdrop to a silence that was too loud.
Kai sat on the floor, leaning against the leg of the armchair, pretending to watch the detective movie Zane had picked out. His gaze, however, kept flicking back to the slumped figure, across the room and on the couch, Cole.
It was no new knowledge to the ninja that for years, the earth ninja had been an anchor. No, not just for the team— but for Kai personally. Where Kai was a wildfire of impulsiveness and fiery passion, Cole was the steady, unyielding earth. He was the booming laugh in the middle of a tense training session, a warm hand on Kai’s shoulder after a tough battle, the first one to suggest pizza after a long mission. His presence alone had a gravitational pull like the earth’s iron core. Constant, unbreakable and grounding.
The fire ninja would be a fool if he didn’t admit he’s felt that gravitational attraction, in more ways than one.
He must be a fool then.
And of course, good things never last for long; things change, something all the ninja have learnt over the years.
It hadn't happened overnight. It was a slow, creeping fade, like a photograph left too long in the sun. At first Kai dismissed it, as well as the others— if they had it noticed at all. Post-mission exhaustion, he’d told himself. But days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and the quiet that had once been a rare side of Cole was just a default.
The boisterous, lively laugh that could shake the rafters was now just a quiet, breathy sound, if it came at all. The genuine, easy-going smile was replaced by a polite, tired curve of his lips that never quite reached once warmth-filled eyes.
First master.. Oh those eyes.
The spark in those brown pools is what he missed most. The warm, mischievous light that hinted at a bad joke or a playful challenge. It was gone, extinguished, and in its place was a profound and hollowed-out weariness.
Kai watched as Jay made a particularly funny joke, earning a round of chuckles. Even Nya cracked a smile. But the noirette just stared at the screen, his expression unchanged, a half-eaten plate of cake in his lap. He looked like a statue carved from granite, beautiful but cold, and utterly still.
A knot of ice formed in Kai’s stomach. He saw the others cast concerned glances at Cole, but they didn't see what he saw. They saw their leader, their friend, their brother, just having an off day. But Kai saw the foundation of his world crumbling. He felt the absence of Cole’s warmth like a physical chill in the room. The earth beneath his own feet felt less solid, more likely to give way.
Enough was enough.
After weeks of simmering anger— concern boiling for just as long as a low grade fever, Kai Smith finally had enough of watching him fade into the background of his own family. Because he can’t just stand by and watch the person who meant more to him than words could say, simply erode away.
So, with a quiet resolve that felt heavier than any battle he’d ever fought, Kai pushed himself to his feet, the movement fast and sharp. The movie’s dialogue faded into a meaningless drone. Now, crossing the room, his steps deliberate, and stopping in front of the couch, blocking the flickering light from the screen.
He looked down at Cole, really looked at him. At the dark circles under his eyes. At the slight tremble in his hands as he held the plate in his lap.
“Turn that off,” He announces, voice low and firm as he stripped his gaze from that hollow expression, flicking to every face in the room.
The command hung in the air, sharp and unexpected. Jay flinched. Nya, as well as Lloyd, sat up straighter. Zane paused the film without a word, the sudden silence on the screen making the tension thicker— the soft blows of the wind outside was louder than inside.
Cole didn't look at Kai. He kept his eyes fixed on the frozen image of the movie hero, his knuckles white where he held the plate as he was blinking slowly, as if surfacing from a deep dive, His fingers twitched, and for a moment the fire ninja thought he would refuse. But then, with a slowness that was physically painful to watch, Cole leaned forward and placed the plate on the coffee table. The soft clink of ceramic on wood echoed for a moment in his head.
The others looked between the two ninja, their faces a mix of confusion and growing concern. They were accustomed to Kai's brashness, to his confrontational nature. This Kai, standing silently in front of the couch, was like a star gone supernova; a shock they were unprepared for and there was no preventing it.
“We need to talk.” The words came out Kai’s mouth as a demand, more than a request— the sum of bottling up this frustration for this long.
“Kai? What’s going on?”
The question trembled in the air. Jay froze mid-gesture, the popcorn bowl hanging precariously in his hands.
Then came the silence. Heavy. Unyielding. Kai didn’t move, didn’t speak, as if the very air had been sucked from the room.
Nya stiffened at the sight, her nerves fraying. Something in her brother’s stillness set off alarm bells in her chest. Concern battled with frustration.
“Kai,” she whispered, sharper than Jay's question, her voice carrying both fear and insistence.
Again, he didn’t answer. Instead— he bit out, “Everyone. Out.”
“Kai-”
“Out.”
He repeated, the words soft but they carried finality.He repeated it, softer this time, but the finality in his voice was unmistakable. The lightning ninja opened his mouth to argue again, but a sharp glare from Kai shut him down immediately. One by one, the others pushed back their chairs and stood.
Cole started to rise with them, but the brunette stepped into his path, arms crossed like a wall.
“Not you. We need to talk.”
Cole shot him a brief look when he was stopped, but sat back down anyway. The simple compliance made Kai swallow hard; it was worse than he'd dared to think. No snappy comebacks, no defiant looks, not even a defensive 'I'm fine'. Cole's compliance was an unsettling testament to just how deep this ran.
At the door, Zane lingered last. Concern flickered in his gaze, along with a silent question as he paused in the doorway. Kai gave a small nod, and he left without a word— arguing would be pointless right now.
As the door hissed shut behind them, silence engulfed the room like a thick fog. Kai took a step closer to Cole.
The earth ninja stared up at Kai from where he sat on the couch, shoulders slouched into the cushions. His expression was strangely blank—too calm, too distant—like someone had smoothed every reaction off his face.
For a moment, he didn’t say anything. He just watched Kai, dark eyes steady but unreadable.
Then he spoke.
“Did… you have to ruin movie night for the others?”
His voice was quiet, rough around the edges, like the words had been dragged out of him rather than offered. There was no real bite to the question, no irritation the way there normally would’ve been. If anything, it sounded tired.
Kai would be lying if that didn't feel like salt in the wound.
The noirette shifted slightly on the couch, resting his forearms on his knees as he looked down at his hands for a second before glancing back up again.
“They were actually enjoying it,” he added after a beat, his tone flat but not accusing. “Jay finally stopped talking through the movie for five minutes. That’s gotta be some kind of record.”
The attempt at humor fell flat the second it left his mouth.
The earth ninja went still the second Kai grabbed his wrist, the room freezing. Then—
He yanked his hand back as if burned, as if the touch itself was the prick of a needle.
"Don’t.”
His voice snapped through the air, sharp and sudden as shot from his seat,the couch cushions shifting behind him as he stood. The calm, distant mask he’d been wearing cracked all at once, frustration flashing across his face like a storm breaking loose.
“I am talking to you,” he shot back, running a hand through his hair in agitation. “You’re just not listening.”
The reaction was so abrupt it almost made Kai flinch. He'd never seen him so angry before, that was usually his thing.
It was wrong—wrong in the same way the ground shaking beneath your feet was wrong. Cole wasn’t the angry type. If anything, he was the opposite of it. Where Kai burned hot and fast, Cole had always been steady. Warm. Solid. The kind of warmth you didn’t notice at first, but always found yourself drifting toward.
Cole was the calm in the room. The quiet laugh, the steady hand on someone’s shoulder, the one who made the team feel… safe.
He was warmth personified.
Which was exactly why the anger looked so unnatural on him now.
It twisted his expression into something sharp and unfamiliar, tightening his jaw and setting his shoulders rigid like stone. His voice—usually low and easy—had turned rough, edged with something Kai had never heard from him before.
Rage.
And Kai didn’t know what scared him more.
The anger itself—
Or the fact that it seemed to be directed at him.
He straightened slowly from his crouch, eyes narrowing.
“Cole—”
“No, you dragged everyone out here, so you get to hear it,” Cole cut in, his voice rising. “I said I’m fine. I said I’m tired. That should’ve been the end of it.”
He gestured sharply toward the door where the others had left.
“But nooo, you had to make a whole scene about it.”
Kai’s jaw clenched. “Because you’re lying.”
Cole laughed, but there was no humor in it—just irritation and something rawer underneath.
“Oh, really? That’s what this is now? You get to decide how I feel?”
“That’s not what I—”
“You’re acting like I’m falling apart or something!” Cole snapped, stepping forward now, the frustration spilling over. “Like I can’t handle a couple rough weeks without you jumping in and trying to fix it.”
Kai didn’t back up.
“If you were handling it,” he said tightly, “we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
The other scoffed, shaking his head as he looked away for a second, pacing a step across the room before turning back again.
“Unbelievable.”
His eyes were burning now, the anger fully there.
“You wanna know what the worst part is?” Cole continued. “You didn’t do this because you care about movie night, or because you think something’s wrong.”
He pointed a finger toward Kai.
“You did it because you can’t stand not knowing something.”
Kai stiffened.
“You hate not being in control of everything,” Cole said, his voice cutting deeper now. “So the second I don’t act exactly how you expect, suddenly it’s an intervention.”
“That’s not fair,” He shot back.
Cole’s expression hardened.
“Neither is cornering me and acting like there’s something wrong with me.”
Silence slammed into the room again, thick and heavy.
Cole crossed his arms, breathing a little harder now, the anger still simmering just under the surface.
“So congratulations,” he said bitterly. “You got what you wanted.”
He gestured between them.
“Now we’re talking.”