Lava | Ninjago

🜂 | the stinging kiss of disinfection

"What happened here?"

"Nothing, it was just an accident."

"Show me your hand." Kai reluctantly shook his head.

"I said–"

"I know what you said," said Cole, cutting him off, "just show me your goddamn hand, Kai." And so Kai did. It wasn't his proudest moment, but he eventually gave up. He let Cole hold it and look over the cuts as he held back hisses of pain. Without any more words, Cole turned on the water and put Kai's hurt hand underneath the stream. That certainly wasn't the nicest feeling and Kai had to bite his lip to stay quiet but it also didn't last long. And then Cole sat him down on the bath, leaving him to get a first aid kit.

Kai's eyes widened for a short-spanned moment when he noticed the bottle of disinfection but he held back his tongue. He went through way worse, he's not going to complain about disinfection, right?

The wordless atmosphere lasted even when Cole crouched in front of him, taking the hand in his again. Then he started cleaning the wounds with a cotton pad soaked in said disinfection, making Kai hiss and try to get his hand away but Cole held steady.

"I know, baby, I know, but we gotta clean this, okay?" he reassured with the sweetest voice Kai has ever heard.

"God, I hate this," he muttered with a scowl. It made Cole's lips twitch and his eyes twinkle with amusement.

"I saw you get shot so many times and this is what your problem is?"

"Not a problem," he quickly replied. His companion remained unconvinced.

Kai watched Cole's face as he cleaned the cuts. His breath was slowly starting to calm down and the fire inside of him to die out. All of his focus was now on the peaceful face. A face he preferred staring at instead of his own reflection in the mirror. How did he do it, Kai wondered, how did he make him chill out by his pure existence?

"Now," said (more so thought) man spoke up, "you're gonna tell me why you had a fight with my mirror?" However, Kai didn't feel like talking about it and just sighed instead of any answer. He noticed Cole stop cleaning the cuts as he threw out the slightly red cotton pad. Then held both his hands and looked into his eyes, which Kai couldn't reciprocate.

"Is there something bothering you, hm?" The 'patient' remained unresponsive, making Cole sigh in turn. "I'm here if you need to talk, okay? Maybe it won't be today, but I promise you that anytime you'll feel like opening up, I'll be there, okay? Kai, dear?" Finally, there was a nod and that was all Cole needed. he let go of the healthy hand and reached behind himself to find a bandage he also prepared earlier.

"I'll just bandage this and then we'll go eat, all right? You must be starving..." Cole spoke as he did so. And Kai watched his careful moves and listened to his caring words and the urge to cry came crashing back in.

"Why are you doing this?" he murmured, too exhausted to care about hiding his broken voice. Cole didn't even look up from his work when he responded, "Why? because you would risk getting an infection otherwise."

"No, I mean– Why do you do this? I just broke your mirror..."

"Eh, it's just a mirror, it's nothing, don't worry about it."

"And I'm a total failure, I'll just let you down like I did everyone else. So why do you keep me so close? Why do you care?" Finally, they made eye contact, Cole staring at him sternly now, as if he was a kid to be lectured for making a mess.

"Is that what you think?" He didn't dare to answer and just looked down at his shaky hands instead. "Kai, you're not a failure, trust me."

"And exactly how do you know that?" he snapped, regret following close behind the end of the sentence. Hurting Cole was the last thing he wanted to do.

"I don't." So simple yet so shocking. He looked back into his eyes in curiosity. "But ever since the day I met you, I watched you fight for your life to help your siblings and I admire you for that. You're completely different from other guys I've met or worked with. You care, you care so much, Kai. Hell, I've never seen someone care the way you do. Do you know how special that makes me feel? To be one of those luckers you care for?" Kai felt some of the tears being let loose, but Cole was quick to wipe them away with his hands.

"There are no losers and winners, love, there are just people going about their lives in some way or another. And yeah, maybe you failed, maybe we all did, but you know what? You don't give up, and that's the most admirable. I'm just sorry you have to keep fighting." He leaned into Cole's palm, allowing himself to relax. "But you're not alone." Cole gave him a quick kiss before finishing his little speech. "We'll be by your side no matter what. How do you say it? Come hell or high water, at least the three of us will stay by your side." The man with hair darker than night stood up, still holding onto one of kai's hands.

"You feeling better now?" And Kai was happy to be able to nod his head with a small smile and actually mean it.

"Yeah."

"Good. You still hungry?" Standing up, Kai replied with his returning enthusiasm, "As fuck, man, let's get eating!" Not needing to be told twice, Cole lead them both out of the room but was stopped once more by Kai.

"Wait!" he exclaimed and Cole frowned in confusion. That was until Kai kissed him, trying to fill the gesture with as much love as he could and Cole was happy to kiss him back.

"Okay, we can go now," Kai said when they parted and took lead as he pulled Cole behind him, out of the messy bathroom and into the dining room filled with the smell of freshly prepared food.