Lava | Ninjago

🜂 | everyone abhors you (at least they do)

Don't let him go.

Please, I don't want to be alone.

What do they know?

"I don't think you're perfect." As if all tension dropped off Cole. Kai was shocked. He couldn't understand anything anymore. All he wanted was for it to be over. He wanted everything to be over, to lay down, to rest... He was used to the exhausting life of an elemental master and to all his duties as a ninja but things just got into another twist and made everything ten times worse.

"I don't think you're a messed up failure either," Cole went on. "I think you're in that grey area just like every single one of us. Maybe you are reckless, but at the same time, you're extremely loving. Maybe you mess up – just as everyone else does – but you never give up, you always try to fix your mistake and do even more to make up for it. They can say whatever they want but it's only half of the real picture. Maybe you get easily controlled by your emotions but who doesn't? It's not a weakness to feel things, Kai! It's quite the opposite! It makes you stronger, it makes you able to not lose yourself completely."

"But–"

"Without emotions, you would sink to the deepest depths and never get back up. But with them, you're still able to stop yourself. Able to forgive or not forgive but let go and save at least yourself. Don't forget that, Kai, please don't ever forget that."

Kai felt tears sting his eyes and he hated everything. This isn't the kind of burn he likes so much. When those arms wrapped around him, he allowed his knees to give out because he knew Cole would catch him no matter what.

"How do you do it?" he hiccuped into the crook of his neck. "How do you make me believe it's actually you?"

"I didn't even know I did that, Kai."

Cole would never lie to him. Perhaps that was it. His honesty. No matter how much it hurt or frustrated him.

There are no cameras in the ninja's rooms. Sure, it might be risky at times and there are moments in which having some cameras there would be useful, however, the team decided they each wanted some privacy and their wishes were respected. So there were never installed any cameras in the bedrooms, they were almost everywhere except for those. To this day, it wasn't an issue. No one broke in via the rooms not only since the way up to the mountain was long and exhausting for many, but also because no one outside the monastery was even aware of this fact that could certainly play into someone's cards.

And once Cole left to go see Pixal and look over surveillance footage of the city, there were no witnesses in the particular bedroom that perhaps needed it most.

The red ninja was in a rush. He pulled out a pair of sai, which he barely ever touched unless he wanted to take care of them, but they came in handy that day. He deemed his katanas to be too long. Perhaps there was a reason some part of him made him take clean the weapons despite his constant doubts that he would ever use them.

Once he was armed and assured that the coast was clear, Kai climbed out the window and closed it behind himself. Then he moved in all the blind spots he learned about over the years and left the grounds of the monastery, and eventually the mountain. Where was he going? He wasn't entirely sure. All he followed was that feeling deep within him that might be sending him on a wild goose chase but he decided to trust it. Something, maybe a voice, was telling him which way to go. And while it did mean he had to face what he preferred to avoid, he was willing to do so one last time.