Usually, after Lord Garmadon has destroyed the city of Ninjago, again, the ninja returned to the monastery to chill. However, tonight was different. "I told you that if your students destroyed my restaurant one more bloody time, and I would-," An old lady complained to Sensei Wu. Her restaurant, located in the middle of Ninjago city, was very popular amongst the people there. After a few years, however, her sales had declined due to a team of messy ninja. The ninja never thought about the damage they were doing to the city while in battle, how could they in the heat of the moment? The owner of the restaurant had come all the way up the mountain, personally, to demand a compensation for the multiple damages done to her building.
"Why is she here?" Jay asked, glancing at the other ninja.
"It seems that we have disturbed her line of work, and-"
"She wants money, Jay, to rebuild the restaurant we destroyed during our last battle," Kai said, interrupting Zane's sophisticated explanation.
"Ohhh, wait, which one?" Jay uttered, trying to recall the battle. He, like the other ninja, never paid much attention to his surroundings.
"Her restaurant," Kai answered sarcastically, not feeling in the mood to discuss the topic. They had to bow down to her as an apology, and had stayed with their heads touching the ground, legs cramped, necks aching, for more than thirty minutes now. "Can't she just appreciate the fact that we saved Ninjago from evil?" Kai asked, letting go of a frustrated sight. "I mean, it's not like her building fell down to the ground".
"My building fell down to the ground!!" The lady shouted in Sensei Wu's face. "Ashes! That's what I found this morning when I woke up and went to open up my restaurant, ashes!!"
"Nice one Kai," Cole said, popping his neck as he turned to glare at Kai. Kai glared back at Cole.
"Hey, I was saving your butt. Are you telling me it would've been better if you had lost an arm?" Kai asked Cole, who just groaned out of frustration. It was one reasonable argument, so nobody else said anything.
"Than it's settled. Ninja," Sensei Wu called. Everyone stood up with great pleasure. Their legs were asleep as they stood straight, facing forward and waiting for him to speak. None were paying attention to what the old lady and him were talking about, so a curious feeling settle inside them. "Ma'am, my students will work for you until your business is financially stable again," Sensei Wu said, than shook the ladies hand.
The ninja glanced around, giving each other weird looks and confused ones. Despite that, nobody dared say a word until the lady was gone. "Wait, Mater Wu, isn't there another way we could help?" Cole asked.
"We could help rebuild the restaurant instead," Jay said. "I'm good at making blueprints, and Zane could help me with the construction," Jay added in a shy voice.
"We could raise money and pay her for the repairs instead," Nya said. She out of all the ninja didn't have time for work. She was already in a full time schedule; School, after school swimming training, ninja training, helping Pixal repair the mechs, and monitor as well as fix the radars of the city, etc.
"I'm afraid that's not it. Even if we did help her rebuild and paid her for other expenses, too, that won't guarantee the financial stability of her business," Sensei Wu said, turning down the ninjas ideas.
"And we will?" Kai asked, connecting his hands behind his neck to stretch.
"She's short on employees. No one wants to work on a place that doesn't even pay one dollar an hour," Sensei Wu said, the ninja listened. "It's not going to last forever, too, as soon as she has the money to start paying salaries she will fire all of you," He added, the ninja sighed in relief, but there was still one question left.
"How long would that be?" Cole asked. Sensei Wu turned on his heel and started to walk towards the kitchn, his students watched his back as he left.
"I don't know," He answered with a shrug, "It depends on how hard you work". With those words Sensei Wu was out of the living room, leaving the ninja in silence. He suddenly appeared at the door again, "I forgot to mention you start tomorrow morning, so go to bed early tonight".
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"I want to be like you when I grow up mister!" A kid told Kai, raising his hands up. He was of course referring to how tall Kai was, and not anything else, but kids were never too specific.
"I don't blame you buddy, I am pretty cool, if I do say so myself," Kai replied, pressing some buttons on the register to make the order before shouting "Call 305 with a happy meal!".
"Don't say that honey. You're going to college," The kid's mother said, picking her kid from the ground. The kid looked between his mother and Kai, and sided with his mother despite his lack of knowledge in the situation. As the mother turned around Kai gritted his teeth.
"But I do go to school, and I save Ninjago like, like all the time!" Kai said to her.
The woman eyed Kai's employee uniform and raised a brow. "Sure you do, from hunger," She said, than turned to smile to her kid, "Come on honey, let's go pick a table".
As the mother left Kai rolled his eyes and walked into the kitchen, where Nya, Lloyd, and Zane cooked. "Why do I have to be the one responsible for the register?!" Kai asked, throwing a tantrum.
"Because Cole can't cook and Jay can't give change," Nya replied, wrapping a burger Lloyd had set in front of her.
"I heard that!" Jay shouted from the restroom. Since Jay couldn't give change and couldn't cook, but was handy with tools, he was named the generator of the restaurant by majority votes. "What is the problem with restrooms at restaurants?! I swear, this is the tenth time this week the man's toilet got clogged," Jay said as he came into the kitchen, but was quickly sent away by the others.
"Well, why can't I be in charges of the deliveries like Cole?" Kai asked, simultaneously shouting "Order 65! Oder 74! Your foods ready, come and get it!!" Just then, Cole opened the back door harshly, sweat dripping from his forehead as he looked up.
"Hey guys, how's it going?" He asked, collapsing on a chair next to the door he had set up for himself weeks after he was in charge of deliveries.
"Cole, you can rest for ten minutes. I'll send you the locations for the other orders in a minute," Zane said, flipping a patty and squishing it against the metal stove. Cole took seat and a big drink of water out of a bottle. He sprinted all around Ninjago to deliver since it was a faster, and more economical, way to deliver.
"If Cole's too tired, I can do it!" Kai volunteered, jumping in front of Cole with a look of readiness.
"That won't do. Someone filed a complaint when you were deliverer, and we're not risking that happening again," Zane reminded.
"Hey, that cat attacked me first, it wasn't my fault I accidentally punched it. I'm used to punching stuff that is aimed directly at my face, it's called defense mechanism," Kai justified.
"Plus, with Cole we get more orders," Lloyd cheered, Kai gave him a questioning look. "He seems to be popular amongst the lady population," Lloyd said with a shrug. Kai turned to look at Cole, who was sticky with sweat, and still catching his breath. It was a groce sight.
But, Kai wasn't a gal so he didn't see the grace of the view. For the lady clients, it went something like this: Picture a tall, handsome delivery guy standing at your door. Shirt glued to his abandoned and pecs as he runs a hand from his forehead up, combing his thick charcoal hair back to wipe the sweat away. His strong arms extending towards you as he smiles and locks those chocolaty, brown eyes with you, then says "Delivery," in a velvety tone that could melt magma. His hands brush against yours as he takes the cash from your hand, and as he turns you can see all of the muscles of his back earned from hard, long training hours. Just as you think he's gone for good, he turns, those sturdy back muscles tensing, causing your heartbeat to skip as he says "I forgot to say, thank you for ordering with us," with a shy look that just makes you sprint out the door to give him a generous amount of dollar bills worth of tips just for him.
"Why?" Kai asked in disqus, eying Cole up and down.
"Beats me," Cole said in a clueless tone and a shrug. "I ran out of deodorant since last week and haven't had the time to buy any," He told the ninja casually.
"Gross," Nya said, Kai agreed with his sisters statement. "Hey, let's give Kai another try. I don't want someone reporting Cole for attracting flies, and he has been running around since this morning," Nya said, Kai immediately took off his little hat, representing his cashier position, and threw it at Cole.
"Have fun with little kids and their mothers you sucker!" Kai said to him as Cole handed him a tracker and nodded. He had no time to argue because he was tired. "I'm in delivery again!" Kai cheered, tying the tracker around his waist.
"I don't want to break it to you Kai, but.." Lloyd uttered nervously.
"We have three deliveries that just came in, now go!" Nya shouted, pointing at the door after she had shoved three bags in Kai's arms.
"Yes ma'am," Kai said, than ran off.
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(Y/n) sat at her desk, flipping over some notes as she struggled to concentrate. "We'll be back from our business trip in a few weeks dear. Meanwhile study hard so you don't fall behind on your grades, okay? We're proud of our little girl," (Y/n) recalled her parents saying before they left. It had been four days since then, and her parents were not even close to returning. As a result of loneliness and worry, (Y/n) stayed at home and studied hard for her exams. She was what people called a workaholic, and struggled to keep up with her parents expectations for her.
"Find the solution of f(x)=(7x-8x^3) Cos(x) using the derivative rule.." (Y/n) read to herself. "Okay, let's start with-" Her thoughts were stopped by a sudden sound that originated from her stomach. She sighed and closed her text book, than stood up and went over to her phone, which was resting on a stand by the window. It marked five, it was late afternoon, causing (Y/n) to groan. She had skipped lunch, again. She walked downstairs to the kitchen, but didn't feel like doing anything at all. Even cup ramen seemed too much trouble to go through. As she settled comfortably in the couch she took her phone out and begun to look for ideas of what to eat, and found out the restaurant that had been rebuilt, like five times now, was becoming quite popular in the area. As she scrolled down the menu her eyes landed on a pizza, so she decided pizza would make up for lunch and serve as dinner. (Y/n) stood and walked to the door to get her jacket since it had begun to rain, but saw the delivery option last minute and pressed it. She took off her shoes and went back upstairs to continued her studies. Ten solid minutes passed and nobody was at her door yet, as she was about to call the place the doorbell rang and she walked to the door. "Coming," (Y/n) called before opening the door. She met with a pair of maroon eyes, which were full of regret.
"Hi.." He said awkwardly.
(Y/n) leaned on the door frame and crossed her arms, the sound of the rain all around. "And you are?" She asked, the guy tensed and struggled to find his words.
"Kai.." He uttered, tilting his head in awe.
"Okay, Kai. Why are you at my door?" (Y/n) asked, her (e/c) eyes scouting him. The guy was practically soaked, the hat that he wore didn't do much to protect him from the rain. Kai never thought it would rain exactly the minute he stepped out to make deliveries, and therefore didn't' care to take his jacket. At his first stop, a dog had almost bit him because of the food smell he carried on his uniform. If it wasn't for the owners dog he would've bemoaned dog food. At his second stop, and old lady paid him only with coins, so he had to speed count each to make sure it was the right amount of money. Lastly, it had started raining, not to mention he had another delivery to deliver. Kai never thought he would regret becoming the delivery guy again, and when a beautiful girl with (e/c) eyes, cute messy hair, with round glasses that just completed her look, opened the door for him, that statement grew roots.
"I uh..." He uttered, lost for words as he rubbed the back of his neck. The problem now was that he didn't know what to say, or to do. He had forgotten what he was even there for. "Oh! Delivery," He said finally, presenting (Y/n) with a squarish box that had been on his arms all that time. (Y/n) rolled her eyes and giggled, noticing his goofy grin as she took the box from him. Her fingertips brushed against his knuckles, sending shivers up Kai's spine.
"Do you take cash?" (Y/n) asked as she turned.
"Y-Yeah," Kai stuttered, which he found weird since he never stuttered. He stood at the door, looking down and feeling the cold water run down his back. Perhaps that was what was making him shiver.
"Hey, do you uh..want to come in?" She asked, turning and meeting gaze with him. Kai felt heat rise to his face, which he also found weird since he wasn't using his elemental power. He didn't answer, listening to his heart pound louder as he shied away. "Come on, I'll feel bad the rest of my day if you stood there and soaked, more than you are already," (Y/n) said. Kai nodded and took a step inside, closing the door behind him and staying put. If he walked around the house it would sure make a mess. When (Y/n) came back she handed Kai the exact amount, which only made Kai feel that much more especial. She also handed him a towel to dry his hair with. He took his hat off, revealing his ruined brown hair.
"Thank you- um.." Kai looked down to her feet, afraid that if he met her gaze his heart would burst out of his chest.
"(Y/n)," She said, Kai reluctantly glanced up to look at her one more time. He didn't regret seen her, the feeling that he felt when he saw her with her hair down and glasses off was indescribable.
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What he did regret, however, was that he, having the chance to, didn't talk to her or asked if they could be in contact with each other. In her eyes, he would remain as a weird delivery guy who she happened to take pity on since it was raining. Kai told the story to the rest of the team when it was time to close that day.
"See, and you always tell me I'm bad at this things," Jay said to the ninja, pointing out Kai's lack of action in the situation.
"Because, you are," Kai shot back.
"Excuse me, but I would have remembered her name," Jay pointed out. Kai's face turned a reddish tone.
"S-Shut it Jay!" Kai shouted, his face still red. His brain went into autopilot mode when he felt too anxious to talk, and he had hardly listed to what she had said at all. When his love daze had ended, he was back at the restaurant, dumbfounded and confused until Nya gave him a slap. "It's not my fault, she distracted me," Kai uttered, looking down.
"No, I'm going to fail," Lloyd said to Zane in the background.
"What are you guys talking about?" Cole asked as he turned.
"Lloyd didn't study for the algebra test," Zane said.
"I ju-just forgot it was th-this week!" Lloyd shouted, cheeks turning pink. "Anyways, that's not what I'm worried about. If I don't pass then my mom will ground me, and when I'm grounded I can't go out," He uttered, getting out his phone from his jacket.
"Ah, and when you can't go out, you can't go kissy kissy with your girlfriend," Jay said in a cutesy tone that made the others guys cringe, and Lloyd become mute.
Kai remained silent too, his mind going back to the girl he had met that rainy evening. "Hey Kai, did you study for the algebra test? Maybe you can give me some hits since you have algebra first period?" Cole asked, getting back to him after having ignored his previous words minutes ago. "Kai," Cole called, poking the brunettes back.
"I don't think he can hear you," Zane reason, Cole and Lloyd raised a brow, but it tooks Jay's mouth to voice their thoughts.
"Oh no," Jay said, "He's turning into another master of ice!" Jay shouted. Cole placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Jay, that was not funny," He said as Kai walked away, head down, face red, heart pounding loudly.
"Nya, are you okay?" Lloyd uttered behind Nya, who had stopped walking behind Kai.
"I don't know," She replied, watching Kai run into an electric pole.
"Ow!" Kai said, rubbing his forehead but retaliating and continuing down the road. He hadn't realized the rest of the ninja had stopped to talk and take a break for a minute.
"Something similar happened to a friend of mine, but he's fine now,," Lloyd said, chuckling and glancing at Cole for a minute, making sure he wasn't listening. "He'll be okay, don't worry," He reassured, giving Nya a thumbs up. Nya's face stayed neutral. Knowing that when his brother settled his mind on something it wouldn't easily get out of his mind didn't eace Nya's worries at all.
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"We have a test?!" Kai asked, bewildered as the teacher told the class to get a pencil out and set everything else off. "But, it's like, morning!" Kai complained.
"Don't take it then," The teacher said simply, placing the paper on Kai's desk as he sighed in relief. "It's not my problem if you fail the semester," He added. Kai banged his head on the desk after having taken a glance at the paper. He knew zero percent of the problems on the test. It also didn't help that it was right first thing in the morning. That same during lunch, Kai walked to the culinary departament to find Cole.
"Why are you in a culinary class? You can't even make sandwiches," Kai said as he took a seat. Culinary departament students were allowed to use the kitchen during lunch and cook their own food as long as they paid the fees for using the materials.
"What are you talking about? My sandwiches are the best," Cole stated, taking a seat and taking a bite out of the sandwich he had just closed. He stopped chewing suddenly, causing Kai to raise a brow at him.
"Let me guess, you put in pickles?" Kai asked, reaching for his bag and getting his lunch out.
"No. I uh..I mixed mustard with tuna," Cole said, deception dripping from his voice.
"Dude.." Kai uttered, trying to keep his stomach in place.
"I thought it'll taste good," Cole said simply.
"Who thinks that?!" Kai said, raising his voice. Nobody in the room paid much attention to him because he was usually loud. "Anyways, I think I just failed my algebra test," Kai said, shaking his head and taking a bite from his food.
"Oh yeah, what's it about? I need to study for it too," Cole said. He was lucky to have algebra last period.
"I don't know," Kai responded. "I didn't study all week because I didn't think we'll have a test. And that old lady is taking away all of my time anyways," Kai added, furrowing his brows in anger. Cole threw away his sandwich and went to the bending machine, where he got a soda and some bags of chips. The boys talked about grades for a while, stating how they wouldn't be eligible for sports if they failed. Not that Kai worried about that, since he didn't do sports, but Cole did since he did heavy lifting for fun, just like Nya did swimming. Two weeks later after the test, the grades were all posted in the hallways. Displayed right in the open, Kai, and everyone else, could see he had come in the death last section of the scores. He didn't even make a D, which was a decent grade compared to an F. Nya and Zane, ofcourse, had the highest scores on the board.
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"I failed the semester," Kai said casually, taking a drink from his soda and picking up the controller. Nya shook his head, highly disappointed but knowing it was inevitable.
"I can't believe I'm taking care of my older brother," Nya said to Kai, stepping on the on button of the power cable and turning the video game off.
"Come on Nya, you're not mom," Kai said, standing up and bending down to take her foot off the power cable.
"No, if I was her I would have said that it's okay, you'll pass next semester," Nya said, stepping on Kai's hand. "But I am not her, so I say you get your butt in your room and study".
"And if I don't want to?" Kai challenged, getting his hand out and standing tall in front of her, eyes narrowing.
Hours later, Kai found himself sitting on his bed, algebra notes all over the place. A single piece of paper laying on his face as he groaned. "Nya, I'm doing something, get away from the door," He said as he stood up lazily and saw Nya's shadow from the gap at the bottom of the door.
"Then tell me the formula for the pythagorean theorem," Nya said from outside the door.
"Uh.." Nai scrambled around on his notes, when it suddenly came back to him. "Oh oh, it's a^2 + b^2 equals c^2, right?!" Kai shouted, smiling widely and feeling proud he had at least remembered something.
"Good job brother," Nya said from the other side of the door. "Except that that formula is for geometry. We took that three years ago, when we were still in middle school," Nya said harshly. Kai placed his notes back in his backpack and took out his phone instead. After some minutes, Nya was gone from the door, and Kai reluctantly came out. After checking left and right, he sneaked out of the monastery. Soon, he was wondering the streets. The lady from the restaurant had given them some weeks off to the ninjas since it was test weeks for the final grades of the semester, so Kai didn't have to worry about been late for work or go to bed early. As he scrolled down his phones notification he found out Nya had turned on his tracker, so he turned it off again, just in case, not because he feared her or anything, duh. Kai glanced up from his phone after hearing fast steps approaching him. He dropped his phone to the ground as he crossed his arms, ready to receive an attack. A girl came tripping down, she carried a binder with her as well as a backpack, and would have brought him down if he hadn't been a ninja.
"I'm so sorry," The girl uttered, looking up at Kai. Kai uncrossed his arms, and his eyes quickly wondered her features. (H/c) hair, glossy lips, and angelic (e/c) eyes.
"Don't worry, it happens to all of us," Kai asked with a chuckle, helping her pick up her stuff from the ground and trying to sound cool
"Haha, sure," She replied nervously, taking her binder from him. Kai read one of the papers he still had in his hand and reading her name off the paper with a smile.
"Hey, (Y/n). Remember me by any chance?" Kai asked with some hope.
"Uh," She uttered, looking down. "I can't see a thing without my glasses, so um..I don't know," She quickly corrected, trying to be polite.
"Then I'll tell you what, I'll walk you home and once we get there you see if you remember me," Kai proposed. She seemed to think about it for a long pause. She narrowed her eyes, and reluctantly agreed. Some time later, Kai got to know (Y/n) a little bit better. Apparently, she was coming back from cram school that evening, it is to say that it was Saturday. Kai didn't tell her about his misfortunes as a ninja or his bad grades at school, and he was more than glad for the first time to not talk about himself. "It was nothing," Kai told (Y/n) when she apologize again for crashing into him. 'It would have been better if you landed on my chest though' He thought, imagining her falling into his arms. "You have cram school tomorrow too, right?" He asked, (Y/n) tucked a hair strand behind her ear.
"Yeah, at noon," She said.
"I'll come by to walk you," He told her immediately. (Y/n) was confused and raised a brow at him. Kai cleared his throat and looked away for a moment, cheeks dusting with pink. "I mean, I can come by after cram school, if you want, and take you somewhere for lunch," He said, scratching the back of his head.
(Y/n) hummed, Kai's nerves tensed. "Okay, I get out at five," (Y/n) said with a closed eye smile.
"Good then, I'll be there," Kai said, taking a step back and hearing (Y/n) giggle. Suddenly she stepped out of the door and reached for his hand, he could feel his heart being lit on fire. "Wa-wait, shouldn'twegetmarriedfirst?!" He shouted, gulping down and squishing (Y/n)s hand, his red face a wreckless mess.
"What?" (Y/n) asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"What?" Kai echoed, looking at her.
"Anyways," (Y/n) said, changing the topic. "I remember you, delivery guy," She said with a smile. "I don't remember your name though.." (Y/n) admitted, letting her hand slip away from his.
"Kai!" He replied right away. He had to make sure she knew the name of the man she was spending the rest of her life with. (Y/n) nodded, stepping back into her home and waving at him as he left.